a different New Zealand police officer stationed annually as the resident Pitcairn Police constable. Twenty New Zealand police officers responded to the British government's advertisement early in 2008, and Sergeant Mike Cleeton was appointed, taking up his appointment in the early summer of 2008. He reported that he found crime rates to be very low. New Zealand police officers have continued to be posted on one-year secondments since that time. Prison officers Owing to the relatively high number of prisoners held in the Pitcairn Island prison (five prisoners, representing 10.5% of the permanent resident population) following the 2004 child sex convictions, a number of New Zealand Department of Corrections officers were stationed on Pitcairn Island, under contract to the British government. This provision is now being scaled back, as almost all prisoners have reached the end of their sentences, or been moved from the prison to house arrest. However, the governor has the right to establish any building as a prison, and under the terms of the Pitcairn Prisons Ordinance 2001 (section 5, subsection 2) all police officers on the island are also, ex officio, prison officers. Customs and immigration The police officer on Pitcairn is also a customs officer and an immigration officer, responsible for passport control, and for receiving visa fees from incoming visitors to the island. Under Pitcairn Law the police officer is responsible to the (appointed) Governor for policing, but to the (elected) Mayor in matters of immigration. The Mayor is ex officio the Chief Immigration Officer of Pitcairn. See also Brenda Christian References External links Pitcairn Islands Online Pacific Union College - Pitcairn Islands Police of the South Pacific Mayor Arrested Further reading "Former PC takes a break as bobby in the middle of South Pacific", New Zealand Press Association, 30 November 2006 Kathy Marks, "Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed" (Free Press 2011) Police forces of British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies