More police staff leave in South

THE number of southern police leaving each year has crept above the national average.

But a senior Dunedin officer says police are not concerned about the increased attrition rate.

Figures released under the Official Information Act show 34 sworn staff in Otago and Southland left in the year to June 30 2018, compared with nine in the 200910 financial year.

That represents a turnover rate of 6% of the Southern District’s 560 officers in the past year.

The national turnover rate is 4.8%, according to the latest police annual report.

It also represents an increase from a turnover rate in 200910 of 1.5%, which was below the national average at the time.

Since last year the levels of attrition among constabulary staff in the South have remained slightly above average.

Of the 34 Otago or Southland officers who left in the past year, 15 resigned, eight retired and one died, while 10 departed for reasons ‘‘unspecified’’.

The turnover of sworn police officers is low compared to other parts of the public service.

State Services Commission figures show in the year to June 30, 2015, all other government departments had staff turnovers above 10%, compared with 4.1% of sworn police officers and 9.9% of nonsworn police staff over the same period.

Southern District prevention manager Inspector Joel Lamb, of Dunedin, acknowledged attrition was on the rise, but said the district remained fully staffed.

Police had anticipated the increased turnover due to demographics and it was not a concern ‘‘at this stage’’.

‘‘If we look at the last two years, certainly attrition has jumped up.

‘‘The reasons people are leaving is quite wide.

‘‘We have a lot of retirements, a lot of people going off to other employment. People change.’’

Insp Lamb cited the tendency of the millennial generation to change jobs more frequently as one driver for rising attrition in the ranks.

‘‘You take someone like me; the vast majority of people in my generation were quite happy to go into a job and commit for a very long time.

‘‘Millennials are different.’’

‘‘The good thing is our recruiting is strong, and we’re really focused on getting the right people into the New Zealand police.’’