The Papua New Guinea police constabulary is revamping its training programme in an effort to address discipline problems.
Police Commissioner Gary Baki says the maximum recruitment age has been lifted to 35 in an effort to allow more mature people into the force.
Mr Baki says the length of time spent training will also be raised from six to 18 months.
The commissioner has asked local universities to assist in teaching recruits a new approach.
"So there are various aspects of sociology and all these kinds of things that needs to be built into so we can understand the behaviour of the people that we are serving. At the moment six months is too short in the sense of what we teach our recruits, basically its all on elements of law and not so much on the society that they are expected to serve."
Gary Baki says the extended training time will also give recruits a chance to spend time at the local military school.