NZ home to Chiefs of Police

New Zealand is home to the secretariat for the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police (PICP), which represents 21 national police services in the Pacific region...



Founded in 1970 as the South Pacific Chiefs of Police, the organisation was renamed last year to better reflect its expanded pan-Pacific membership.

Membership is open to national police services of Pacific countries and territories. The current 21 members range from the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands in the north, New Zealand in the south, French Polynesia to the east, and the republic Palau to the west and represents more than 75,000 serving officers.

PICP Secretary, NZ Police's Superintendent Cam Ronald says the purpose of the PICP is to foster cooperation and share information and experience amongst member organisations.

A big part of the Secretariat's work is liaison with other agencies with an interest in law enforcement in the Pacific region and elsewhere.

"The PICP provides a voice for member nations on law enforcement issues and develops strategies to combat emerging tends in transnational and other crime," explains Cam.

"In the current environment transnational crime and its effects are a significant law and order concern."

Currently the PICP is focusing on two key areas: domestic or community-based policing and transnational crime.

"We work closely with the Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Centre and transnational crime units (TCUs) in the region to share information." See story here.

"However, the capacity to investigate and combat transnational crime needs to be built on robust community policing skills. Day-to-day domestic crime can significantly impact on law and order in the region," says Cam.

"Developing policing capability in the region makes up a large portion of the PICP's work and we are working with other agencies, such as the Pacific Regional Policing Initiative, to develop training programmes and share best-practice."

Each year the PICP seconds project officers from Pacific police services to work with them on various projects.

This year officers from the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa have worked on integrity and women's issues projects for periods of up to eight weeks.