Government plan for 1800 extra cops
The Government is getting creative when it comes to ways to make sure it gets frontline officers into communities, in an effort to prevent crime.
Police Minister Stuart Nash said one of the big focuses of the new Government was on community policing – getting more frontline cops into communities, including rural and provincial areas.
This would include re-opening some community police stations, and in some areas relocating police into the rural fire station.
Nash said the Government, and police, were trying to be ‘‘smarter’’ about how to serve communities. In some rural areas, the local cop was also part of the fire brigade; it made sense to work together out of one building, rather than spending money and resources on a separate station, he said.
In the latest police workplace survey, 40 per cent of respondents said they did not feel like they were delivering on the promises they were making to their communities.
The Government wanted to help police better meet communities’ expectations, he said.
The Labour-NZ First coalition agreement promises to ‘‘strive towards’’ adding a further 1800 cops by 2020.
Nash said he was not shying from that commitment, and said he still planned for about 1500 of those to be sworn officers. About 300 would be unsworn, but have specific skills for 21st century policing, like dealing with cybercrime, and the dark web. Support staff were in addition to that 1800.
About 1100 of the 1800 total would be frontline community officers – working to prevent crime – and about 700 would be part of an organised crime squad – dealing with serious crime that had already been committed.
The coalition agreement specifically used the words ‘‘strive towards’’ in order to acknowledge the challenge of recruiting an additional 1800 cops in three years.
Nash said while he was confident it could be done, it wouldn’t be easy.
To get to 1800 extra, police would need to recruit and train about 1000 cops a year. About 400 police leave the service every year, which meant training 600 to get to the 1800, plus a further 400 to replace those who leave.
The National Party has been critical of the Government’s 1800 new cops promise, saying they expected to see standards drop.
Nash said they would not allow the quality of recruits or training to drop, which was another part of the reason the coalition Government set an aspirational target, using the words ‘‘strive towards’’.
National has also questioned how the Government would fund those extra police.
‘‘For all its big talk about boosting police numbers, at the end of the day this is a Government that wants to go soft on crime. It’s more interested in funding free fees for students than in funding extra frontline police to help crack down on criminals,’’ National Party police spokesman Chris Bishop said.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush, and the Police Association, said it cost about $140,000, including training and kit, for each new recruit. That put the cost of 1800 extra cops about $252 million, while acknowledging it could be slightly lower after taking into account the 250-300 unsworn officers.
Nash would not say much about funding ahead of next week’s Budget. However, he did say he was confident police would be given the funding and the resources to meet the recruitment goal.
Constitutionally, Nash cannot tell the commissioner where to put his police – all operational matters are made by NZ Police, not the minister.
However, Labour, NZ First, the Green Party and police were all on the same page with priorities and strategy, he said.
Training for that first tranche of additional cops was just about to begin, and in an effort to draw in more recruits, police were trialling a new training facility in Auckland.
It would be the first time since the 1970s that Kiwi cops would not be trained at the Porirua training college. But it was an acknowledgement not everyone could pack up their lives and move to the Wellington region for 16 weeks.
The Auckland training course would be slightly longer, as the recruits would not live onsite.
Nash said the Auckland course was not created because Porirua did not have capacity, it was an effort to get a range of people, from different areas, and different backgrounds included.
The coalition agreement also promised the Government would look into the establishment of a volunteer police force.
Nash said he has had an initial briefing on this, but no decisions had been made.
The priority was to get the extra frontline officers into communities, and see the impact that had, before considering whether volunteers could play a part.
‘‘For all its big talk about boosting police numbers, at the end of the day this is a Government that wants to go soft on crime.’’ Chris Bishop, National MP