'Insensitive': Police apologise to aspiring officer

Police have apologised for using an outdated medical term to describe an aspiring officer, but stand by their decision to reject his application.

The Dunedin man believes his chances of becoming a police officer were ruined by an officer who came to the conclusion he was "on the spectrum", describing him as having "Asperger’s", an outdated term to describe a form of autism.

He said he was recently evaluated by a clinical psychologist who found otherwise.

When contacted by the Otago Daily Times, police apologised for using the term, but stood by the decision to decline the man's application, saying multiple staff came to the conclusion that he was unsuitable.

The man said last year he started the application process to become a police recruit, but was ultimately declined.

When he asked why, he was not given a straight answer, so asked for all information held by police about him through an Official Information Act request.

He was shocked to discover an officer involved in the recruitment process had assumed after meeting him that he was "on the spectrum".

The comments came after the Dunedin man attended a voluntary running club with the officer.

In an email between the officer and another person involved in the recruitment process, the officer said: "It didn’t take long for me to form an opinion of [him] within the first few minutes.

"My first impressions of him was that he was socially inept and very awkward.

"I thought he was on the spectrum with his interactions with the other [two] males, myself and [another officer].

"This has since been confirmed in [the national intelligence database] ... with him suffering from Asperger’s."

The Dunedin man said the officer had "confirmed her opinion ... in three minutes".

"[The officer] has made a diagnosis of me based on interactions in one voluntary running club.

"She’s then gone and looked at those historic reports, had her opinion confirmed, and then gone to completely unreasonable lengths to tank my application because she thinks that I have autism."

The man said he was recently evaluated by a clinical psychologist, who found he did not meet the threshold to be officially diagnosed with either ADHD or autism.

He said the references to ADHD and Asperger’s in the national intelligence database come from information passed on to police when he was a child.

He believed using this historic information was unfair.

Police also requested that the man get the mental health assessment, which cost him $1000.

"Meanwhile ... the guy who requested it was in an email chain laughing about my application, saying ‘this is going to be a fun one’."

Police constabulary recruitment manager Lylee Norriss said the use of the the term "Asperger’s" was insensitive and incorrect.

"The noting in the Police Intelligence database which mentioned Asperger’s was from many years ago and we have removed this information.

"We have also addressed this language with staff members involved."

The decision to decline the man's application was not on medical grounds, she said.

"We strongly dispute any claims that a staff member has unfairly targeted this person and that was the reason he was declined.

"We know applicants are very passionate about a career with police, and we understand it can be disappointing to be declined.

"Multiple staff members through the process assessed that this individual was unsuitable to become a police officer."

laine.priestley@odt.co.nz

 

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