ABC Online

Police say a new program to employ Aboriginal high school students at stations in the western New South Wales region will help to recruit more officers in remote areas.

Project Murra will give 12 pupils from Dubbo, Walgett, Bourke, Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, Coonamble and Lightning Ridge three months paid work during their last two years of school.

The Acting Superintendent of the Castlereagh local area command, Bob Noble, says the project aims to encourage the students to join their local police force.

"We do struggle to recruit police to the remote areas of the west, and particularly Aboriginal police officers that give us a capability to communicate and empathise with the local people, so we see it as very important in that cultural understanding as well," he said.

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