A self-appointed recruiter has created a headache for police by presenting them with 25 potential recruit applicants from Singapore.
Peter Low, who attracted 15,000 people to an East Auckland anti-crime rally last July, claims to have a police letter authorising him to recruit Asian officers.
However, police have distanced themselves from the relationship.
"I have five confirmed Singaporean recruits and 20 potential ones, whom I will be presenting to the police," Mr Low told the New Zealand Herald after returning from a trip to Singapore and Malaysia.
He said the men were former Singaporean military and police officers aged between 25 and 28.
Police last year reached an agreement in principle with Singapore police for New Zealand to recruit officers from the island nation.
Mr Low said he was assisting to "speed up the process".
He had already referred four local Asian recruits to the police, and the letter from police recruitment manager Gary Allcock clearly stated for him "to provide Asian people who may be interested in the New Zealand police as a career".
But policing development manager John Mitchell said a subsequent email was sent to Mr Low explicitly distancing the police from him and his group.
Inspector Allcock wrote in that email: "There is no way the police can be involved with you or your organisation if you were charging money or receiving benefits from potential applicants. This would not be acceptable."
Mr Low argued that because he was personally not charging any money to the applicants he understood the content in the first letter to still stand.
"Mr Low and his group were not asked or authorised to carry out recruiting in Singapore, or authorised to act as an agent of NZ Police in any way," Mr Mitchell said.
"We welcome him encouraging suitable community members to apply for the police in the normal way, but that is all."
He said Mr Low had been told to tell prospective applicants to apply through normal police channels.
