Overseas police officers to be enticed to solve SAPOL’s crippling resource crisis

SA Police will target overseas officers in a bid to solve its crippling staff crisis – so which countries will our new cops come from?

Police are set to recruit up to 200 officers from overseas to fast-track moves to fill hundreds of vacancies.

The initiative will target experienced police from the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand to fill crippling shortages in key frontline operational areas.

Senior police have formally submitted a Labour Agreement application to Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles for approval to enable the necessary visas for the overseas recruits to be secured.

SAPOL executive director people, culture and wellbeing Kim-Sherie Summers said other states were “also doing this quite aggressively’’ because of the national shortage of applicants.

“These are big markets and I think we have a lot to offer in South Australia and because we have done this before we are pretty good at it,’’ she said.

“We are working with our existing UK recruits on this, our project leader is a former UK recruit who has been here for 18 years and has risen to the rank of chief inspector.’’

SAPOL executive director people culture and wellbeing Kim-Sherie Summers. Picture: Emma Brasier

Ms Summers said once the visa process was completed it was hoped overseas marketing would start in November with a target of training the overseas recruits in mid-2024.

“This is about meeting our establishment number as fast as we can … but we still have an absolute commitment to recruiting South Australians and we have demonstrated that with recent initiatives,’’ she said.

A major initiative dubbed Pathways to Policing aimed at increasing local recruit numbers was launched last month that involves year 12 students at Thebarton Senior College undertaking specific studies to develop a pathway to joining SAPOL.

While police have previously successfully recruited from the UK, the move to hire NZ officers is a first. In 2004 former police commissioner Mal Hyde recruited from the UK as local recruits dwindled amid a national labour shortage.

Between 2004 and 2011 just over 500 officers were recruited from the UK. Of that number, there are still 320 officers serving with many of them having risen through the ranks to command key specialist areas in SAPOL.

Police Association president Mark Carroll said while the overseas initiative was supported “local recruiting should still be the priority”.

“We would also like to see a review of recruitment practices to ensure the ratio of applicants to employees increases to ensure more local recruits are accepted,” he said.

“And other measures such as allowing former employees who meet the criteria to re-enter the workforce at their former rank should also be considered to address the critical shortages that exist.’’

Police officers on duty on Hindley St. Picture: AAP / Dean Martin

Police Minister Joe Szakacs said the government had already provided extra funding to boost local recruiting efforts that had increased the number of cadet courses.

“To accelerate that injection of additional police on to the South Australian frontline sooner, we also need to look at recruiting skilled international talent,’’ he said.

“The United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand have been identified as having a strong likelihood of providing staff that will fit seamlessly into the cultures of both SAPOL and South Australia at large.’’

The move comes as a major new recruiting campaign targeting local recruits is launched to meet a target of recruiting 900 new police officers over the next three years.

Ms Summers said SAPOL was currently 218 officers below is funded FTE figure of 4674, but an accelerated recruitment program involving additional courses with increased numbers of cadets was already proving beneficial.

“We are planning 12 courses a year, which equates to 300 recruits and so far we have filled every course so far, which have also been expanded to 26 cadets instead of the usual 24,’’ she said.

In February The Advertiser revealed the full extent of the resourcing crisis facing SAPOL when attrition had exceeded the number of new recruits being enlisted.

Ms Summers said the latest figures revealed the attrition rate had slowed with 54 officers either retiring or resigning so far this financial year, compared with 242 last financial year.

“The rate of 5.3 per cent has been steady now for seven months with other jurisdictions also seeing a slowing as well,’’ she said.

Originally published as Overseas police officers to be enticed to solve SAPOL’s crippling resource crisis