The number of staff paid more than $160,000 more than doubled, rising from three staff to eight.
Over the same period, the number of Eastern District staff paid less than $100,000 fell by 73 staff, or 20 per cent.
The Eastern District covers Hawke's Bay and Tairawhiti.
Napier MP and Labour police spokesman Stuart Nash said Hawke's Bay needed police officers on the ground, not managers in offices being paid more.
"I'm just keen to know what overall value those extra senior staff members are having to our communities in getting those bad statistics down," Mr Nash said.
"I would have thought more police on the beat solving crimes and keeping our communities safe are what the police need, as opposed to more police sitting in national or district headquarters trying to go over the statistics and figure out what's happening.
"If I was the Minister of Police, I would be taking this very seriously. I would be asking the Commissioner of Police what value all these extra senior managers are having to the overall police force," Mr Nash said.
Deputy Prime Minister and Police Minister Paula Bennett's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Police deputy chief executive for people Kaye Ryan did not specifically address the Eastern District remuneration figures, but said in a written response to Hawke's Bay Today the change in remuneration figures was due to several factors.
"The dollar figures should not be read as the actual salary range of employees," she said.
Ms Ryan said remuneration levels were affected by an annual 2 per cent pay increase for most police staff as per the collective agreement and a holiday pay remediation project which resulted in payments to some staff.
Ms Ryan also said there was one extra scheduled fortnightly payday in 2015/16 due to the dates involved, which resulted annual salaries being around 4 per cent higher.
Over the past year, the Police Association has called for more police, and former Police Minister Judith Collins has admitted frontline staff numbers need to increase.
An article in the Police Association's December 2016 magazine entitled "Staff crisis affects duties" said: "The constant pressure of running a frontline section on minimum numbers in provincial areas is creating risks for staff."
Mr Nash said he has spoken to a number of former Eastern District officers who have raised concerns about the current ratio of managers to frontline officers.
"If you talk to the old guys, retired cops - and one that was a former district commander - they all say they do not understand why the organisation is so top heavy now... They're really concerned about the direction police are taking."
Nationwide, an extra 1286 police staff were paid more than $100,000 between the 2015 and 2016 financial years, rising from a headcount of 3307 to 4593, or 39 per cent.
See the full remuneration figures for all New Zealand Police districts below:
