Custody Officer

New Zealand Police is working with the community to make New Zealanders be safe and feel safe. With over 15,000 staff, we provide policing services 24 hours a day, every day. We operate by land, sea and air, manage over 860,000 emergency calls a year and are always actively preventing crime and crashes.

We're working towards specific goals and targets that highlight our intent to work collaboratively with iwi and communities, other government sectors and business partners to deliver our business and achieve long-term change.

**Custody Officer - Gisborne**

**New Year - New You**

- **Based in Gisborne**

- **Multiple Vacancies**
- **March 2026 Start**
- **Starting Salary of $74,748.00**
- **Permanent - Full Time**
- **NAV**
- **JR5361334**

**E tu ki te kei o te waka, kia pakia koe e nga ngaru o te wa.**
- Stand at the stern of the canoe and feel the spray of the future biting at your face_

**Mo te tunga | About the role**

The new year is fast approaching, and we are currently recruiting for our March 2026 intake for Custody Officers to join New Zealand Police in the Gisborne Custody Unit. You will be joining our highly skilled and professional team to manage the health and safety of detainee's whilst they are in our custody and during transit.

The role of a Custody Officer is to ensure the safe, secure, and humane containment and transportation of all detainees within the Police Custody environment. A Custody environment is any location where a person is in police custody, including cells, courtrooms, prisons, hospitals, and the transit between locations.

You will be responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the detainee, monitoring their behaviour and state of mind, providing the appropriate care, and ensuring professional standards are continuously met.

These duties include, but are not limited to, prisoner management, both in the custody suite and within a court environment; risk management, with an emphasis on keeping staff and prisoners safe from harm; developing and maintaining interagency relationships; data entry and ensuring legislative compliance.

This role requires confident, open-minded people with high attention to detail and an ability to follow stringent safety procedures.

**Key Accountabilities**:

- Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
- Ability to de-escalate emotional situations.
- High levels of empathy and compassion.
- Resilience, perseverance, and calm, professional manner.
- Strong attention to detail, accurate and precise, with the ability to record and prepare information such as statements for court.
- Duty of care, understanding the welfare, health, safety, and level of care required for detainees.
- Strong team player, reliable, trustworthy, flexible to work shifts, weekends, public holidays.
- Decisive, cool, calm, and collected, can think on your feet, using your initiative and work well under pressure.
- Good computer skills and are comfortable learning new systems, as you will be required to input and update data accurately in Police systems, accurate typing abilities are essential.

**He aha taau e kawe mai | What you'll bring**

Whilst we are looking for skills, knowledge and experience relevant to the role, we also place high importance on your state of mind, the alignment of your values with ours, your ability to contribute to and build high performing teams, and the way that you lead yourself or others.

**We are looking for people who can demonstrate**:

- Outstanding communication skills
- Empathy for others
- Commitment
- Integrity
- Problem-solving abilities
- A sense of humour is also pretty important.

- Hold a full New Zealand Driver Licence
- Have the right to work and live in New Zealand.
- Be physically fit and able to compete a fitness assessment as part of your recruitment process
- Be willing to complete a pre-employment Medical Assessment (including a drug test)
- Be able to work full time covering a variety of shifts (6:30am - 2:30pm / 2:00pm - 11:00pm / 10:00pm - 7:00am) including weekends and public holidays, on 6 days on, 4 days off rota

This role is **Individual Contributor/Emerging Leader**level. You can refer to Indicators for Success for further information on the requirements

**To view the position description for this role please copy and paste this link into a new browser**:
**Mo tatou | About us**

New Zealand Police is the lead agency responsible for preventing crime and enhancing community safety. It works in partnership with individuals, communities, businesses, and other public sector agencies towards the vision of making New Zealand the safest country. Police is the government's largest front-line response agency with around 15,000 staff in large and small communities all over New Zealand and in liaison and policing development roles overseas.

Your development is highly valued at NZ Police. Our employees enjoy significant investment in their development not only at an individual level, but also at the