Police Recruit Has Hand in His Own Arrest; Once Again the Question Has To Be Raised: Stupid Criminal or Stupid Cop?

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A New Zealand police recruit has had a hand in his own arrest for an unsolved assault. As part of a training exercise in fingerprinting at the Royal New Zealand Police College, the recruit gave his prints — and they matched him to an arrest warrant for a serious assault, Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper reported Wednesday.

He was arrested late last week and will appear in court later this week, the paper reported.

Training commander, Superintendent Alistair Beckett, said the recruit, whose name was not reported, had managed to slip through rigorous screening of potential recruits.

"By and large, the people we get are top of the line, top drawer. They normally don't have things from the past they want to hide," he was quoted saying.

But the police are not taking any chances that others might try to fool the system. Starting from October, all recruit applicants will be fingerprinted before they are given training, Beckett said.