There has been no edict to increase the numbers of gays and lesbians in the police force, despite recent media reports to the contrary, says the police's equal employment opportunities officer Inspector Peter Cowan. The Sunday Star-Times last week reported that an officer in Auckland had quit the force because of homophobic bullying, and that police were trying to increase the numbers of gays and lesbians in the ranks. Cowan says both parts of the report were incorrect. "I had a call from the officer concerned on Monday and he was really irate, because he said he didn't leave the police because he was intimidated and bullied out of the job." The reports of gay recruitment drives were repeated by former Auckland mayor John Banks on Radio Pacific earlier this week, in an hour-long anti-gay rant which Cowan describes as "disgusting". Cowan believes the rumours of gay recruitment drives have been exaggerated from other media reports which detailed the appointment of diversity liaison officers and inclusiveness training for police. "We recruit the best people available," Cowan says. "We do not recruit in relation to sexual orientation, we recruit based on people's ability. We want the best people in the police force and their sexual orientation has absolutely no bearing on their application to the police." Police recruitment officers have been present at gay events like Auckland's Big Gay Out in the past, and plan to be at next year's, but Cowan says this is just one of many large public events that recruitment officers go to. "Does that mean we're actively recruiting gays and lesbians? No. What we're doing is actively recruiting good people from our community," he says. "We go to a lot of public events in the Auckland area, as it's an area where we really are struggling with recruits. So we go anywhere where we think we can be successful in recruiting decent, good people." Cowan says police are actively working to turn around a long-held suspicion of police held in the GLBT community. "We want people to think the police is a real career option, an employer of choice, as opposed to somewhere where they don't think they could work."