A new tertiary course in south Auckland has been set to help introduce more police officers to the frontline.
The programme is being used as a tool to prepare students who want to enter police college.
Lesly Thomson is one the students enrolled in the new police training programme at Manukau Institute of Technology.
"I want to join the police cause I grew up in south Auckland was like… pretty hard because you see lots of crime," he said.
"The idea is to allow students the opportunity to train and be the best applicants for the New Zealand police as possible and that they can train in their community, to come back to their community as quality police officers," said Michelle Parsons, MIT School of Sport Practice Leader.
The course is not an official police course but prepares students by covering physical training, as well as classroom theory.
There's no guarantee of acceptance to training college but it's likely to help because for some, "going in cold" doesn't always work.
"Some of them have failed going to police college and some aren't as prepared as they could of been.
"We've got a graduate in the police now who came and spoke to the students and said the best thing she did was get life experience before she went into the police," said Ms Parsons.
The police told Newshub that only 17 percent of people who apply to join the force make it through the recruitment process.
The new Labour-led Government aims to introduce 1800 officers over the next three years, meaning pre-training courses could prove worthwhile.
"If they have an inclination to join the police it's certainly a stepping stone to find out what certain aspects of it... are like, and whether it's something they're going to like," said Ormiston Police Detective Senior Sargent Len Leleni.
One-hundred-and-thirteen people who completed a pre-training course like this have been accepted to police college since 2015 and students at this course hope they'll be the next ones "to join the frontline".
Newshub.
