Associate Police Minister Casey Costello accepts it might not be achievable to train 500 extra police officers by the end of November next year, a central law and order commitment in National and New Zealand First’s coalition agreement . The NZ First MP says she’ll give it her utmost and is optimistic, pointing to a “significant uplift in inquiries” from people wanting to join police and a reliance this Government’s approach to policing will convince officers to stay and attract new ones. However, she acknowledges the challenges faced in reaching the target of 10,711 sworn officers by November 27 next year, namely the fact they’ll need to recruit about 900 on top of that to account for attrition - a total of 1400.
The commitment to increase frontline police staff was a central part of yesterday’s police Budget announcement , which allocated more than $220 million over four years to achieve and sustain that workforce level. As per the coalition agreement, the Government had committed to training 500 extra police in the first two years. Costello, who was delegated responsibility for the policy by Police Minister Mark Mitchell, stated there were 10,211 sworn officers when the coalition agreement was signed, which meant honouring the policy would mean increasing that to 10,711.
Police attrition, officers who left the workforce, was about 4.5 per cent annually - 460 officers based on the figure from last year. Costello confirmed the policy was over and above attritio.
