New Zealand Police needed to double its recruitment targets for 2018, with an aim to increase diversity amongst its intake – Especially targeting more Maori and more females.

Research discovered data that identified a common theme that was causing a block in the recruitment funnel. Many potential recruits had questions about joining the Police that were going unanswered because they didn’t know an officer to ask. Especially those in our minority target, whose conversations with the Police often felt like interrogation.

This breakdown in communication caused many to leave their applications unfinished.

So, we needed to find a way to open up the lines of communication. It had to be an idea that gave potential recruits access to police of all genders, ethnicities, and communities. And it had to allow the public to ask police officers anything, and have their questions answered to give them the confidence to sign up.

In order to answer the public’s questions we created a campaign that turned the tables on the Police, allowing the public to question the cops.

For our recruitment video, we sourced the most searched questions about becoming a cop, along with questions asked by the public on social – Then had real cops answer them.

This video featured influencers who resonated with our audience, like, Maori TV presenters speaking te reo Maori, journalists, over 70 real police, comedians, and actors who’ve played cops in movies and TV – Then this video was released back to our audience through Police social channels.

The video encouraged viewers to sign up at newcops.co.nz or ask more questions at ChatCops – An interactive website that encouraged friendly interrogation, where the public could ask cops anything.

This reverse questioning continued across a social retargeting campaign, and TV talk shows where questions were submitted via social.

From our previous year’s campaign we discovered a high number of people in our target market who visited newcops.co.nz had not signed up – 88% of females, 85% of Maori, 79% of Pacific Islanders, 91% of Asians.

So, we retargeted these once-interested parties and engaged in conversations, along with simultaneously talking to the newest batch of Police recruits, in order to discover the barriers and potential barriers that would stop the sign up process. And this gave us vital information.

It turns out that nearly every potential recruit had questions to ask about becoming a cop, but very rarely had someone to talk to – Especially those who in our target market whose only conversations with the Police in the past had often felt like interrogation.

These potential recruits either stopped pursuing a career with the police or attempted to find their answers by either asking Google or posting their questions on the Police’s social channels.

So, in order to increases signups, we needed to find a way to not only answer these questions, but make a diverse range of Police officers available and approachable, for the public to engage in a conversation with and ask any questions they had.

Normally the Police ask all the questions. So, we decided to turn the tables, allowing the public to question the cops.

To launch, we gathered the most searched questions about becoming a cop asked in Google, along with more uncommon questions asked on social media, and created a recruitment video with these questions being answered by real cops.

This video, which featured influencers who resonated with our target market, was then released back to our audience through Police’s social channels.

Those who had their questions answered were encouraged to sign up at newcops.co.nz, and those who had more could visit ChatCops – a new interactive site where you could ask cops anything.

In the week of launch, officers featured on TV talk shows, where the interviewers’ questions were submitted by the public via social. In the following weeks a retargeting campaign ran across social for those who still had questions.

As a result, our recruitment video was picked up by the media nationwide and worldwide – reaching 73.6 million people.

We’ve had a 773% increase in diverse profiles created on newcops.co.nz, compared to our previous year’s campaign.

Six months into our campaign our applications are 30% above our projected targets.

And most importantly, applications for Maori and women are up in record numbers. Making this the most successful recruitment campaign New Zealand Police has ever had.