The New Zealand Police formed in 1840. Six constables accompanied Lt. Governor Hobson's official landing party to form the colony of New Zealand.

It was called the New Zealand Police Force but in 1958 a new Police Act was passed and the word 'force' was removed from the name. The name now used is The New Zealand Police.

One of the original styles of uniform for a police officer in New Zealand was a white wool coat and hat over long sleeved, shirt and tie and wool pants.  It would have been very hot and very hard to run in - police uniforms are now practical and useful (and police officers wash more than a couple of times a year.  Most people in the 1800’s, including police officers, only washed a few times each year!!!)

Photographs, fingerprinting, identikits and dna all help prove who committed the crime, but fingerprinting was only introduced in 1903. Before that, the police used to take photos of people with their hands held up.

Police officers used to travel by riding horses but horses need a lot of care and attention so they soon changed to bicycles.

Women weren’t allowed in the police until 1941 and even then they were in a 'woman's division,' but it wasn’t until 1973 that they were treated just like male officers in the police and got the same pay, went on patrol and took part in EVERY part of policing

Did you know ?

The tallest policeman in New Zealand, was Andrew Gregory and he was 7 Ft 4, which is REALLY tall and he was so skinny that he could hide behind lampposts and jump out and surprise children who were not going to school. ...he had to have a special bike designed for him to ride while on duty.

The New Zealand Police force was originally based on the English police force. The English police force was started in 1829 by a man called Sir Robert Peel...as a result Police officers became known as Bobbies (see if you can figure out why :0)

The reason we call Police cops sometimes is because in the early 1800’s cop meant to arrest somebody so Police became coppers or cops to people who often used to yell it out to let people know that the Police were coming.

In the United States, the first organized police service was started in Boston in 1838.

On March 12,1829, a government order created the first uniformed police in France. They were known as sergents de ville ("city sergeants"), which makes them the first police officers in the world to wear uniforms.

DNA's like the code or recipe that makes people different from each other. Nowadays police can find out whose DNA is in a hair or a tiny bit of skin left at a crime scene.