A demographic breakdown of the New Zealand police, released to the Otago Daily Times under the Official Information Act, shows staff numbers, age, length of service, ethnicity, gender and salary breakdowns for each district.
Of the 660 people employed in the Southern district, 569 were sworn staff and 91 non-sworn.
Southern sworn police had one of the highest average lengths of service, 14.2 years, behind Canterbury (14.6) and Tasman (14.3).
Half of Southern's sworn staff (330) were aged 40 or older, with 48 aged between 20 and 30.
In regards to ethnicity, 83.3% of Southern district staff identified as being Pakeha/New Zealand European, with the district recording the lowest rate of Maori (5.6%), Pacific Islanders (0.7%) and Asian (0.3%) employees.
The Canterbury district recorded the highest number of Pakeha/New Zealand European (84.8%), Northland district Maori (24.2%), Counties Manakau district Pacific Islanders (12.8%) and Auckland City Asians (6.4%).
Southern also recorded one of the lowest numbers for female sworn officers (15.3%), with only Tasman lower (10.4%).
Wellington district had the highest percentage of females (22.9%), followed by Counties Manukau (20.6%) and Northland (19.2%).
While nationally the most common salary band for sworn police was $50,000-$60,000, in the Southern district it was $70,000-$80,000 (153 staff).
Forty-three Southern district staff earned more than $90,000, including eight senior staff who earned more than $110,000.
Base salaries do not include employer contributions to superannuation, or any allowance available to staff.
