Police are this month marking the 1000th piece of individual feedback to New Zealand Police via a new online portal launched a year ago.
Launched in May last year, the new online praise and complaints portal at www.police.govt.nz/feedback provides a conduit for both praise and dissatisfaction from the public. The comments received are used to quickly address shortfalls in service as well as to provide real time feedback about outstanding work to staff.
The praise and complaints portal also contributes to fulfilling Police's obligations to make progress toward the recommendations of the 2007 Commission of Inquiry (COI) into Police Conduct. One of the COI recommendations was to address Police accountability, particularly around making it easy for people to find out the right information on their rights if they wanted to make a complaint to Police.
Deputy Commissioner Viv Rickard is pleased with the growth of feedback from the online channel.
"It's great that we're able to acknowledge good service and ensure feedback gets back to those staff members who deserve it. It's also vitally important that Police remain committed to fixing things up when the public aren't happy with our level of service."
“For example, did we treat people fairly, was our attitude right, did we give the right information and was the service we provided acceptable? Often these matters can be resolved quickly and to the satisfaction of the person who raised the concern.”
While many of those using the portal were complaining about service more than 20 percent of the feedback received was praise for Police.
Deputy Commissioner Rickard says the online portal is proving useful in highlighting standout examples of ‘above and beyond’ service by Police staff.
For example, a couple from overseas were visiting New Zealand and had a vehicle crash. They later emailed via the online portal, congratulating Police on having such highly professional staff, as the attending officer was "professional, kind and authoritative......who did an excellent job in handling the situation and putting everyone involved at ease during what was a stressful situation."
Deputy Commissioner Rickard says, "If Police staff across the country get their service delivery right, we'll see that reflected in our trust and confidence levels."
New Zealanders continue to have high levels of trust and confidence in the New Zealand Police. The independently-run Citizens' Satifaction Survey asks people their views about Police, feelings of safety and what their service experience was like if they recently had contact with police.
"At 77 percent, New Zealand Police’s overall trust and confidence rating is the envy of many overseas police forces."
ENDS
For media queries, please contact Christopher Johnston, Acting Media Advisor, Police Public Affairs on (04) 474 8856.