High-earning Northland police numbers spike 240 per cent

There are now more Northland police earning above $100,000 than there are earning below $80,000. Photo/File

The number of police staff earning $140,000 or more in Northland has increased by 240 per cent in a year.

The increase in top salaries coincides with a period when a stretched police budget and frontline staff shortages were labelled a "crisis" by the police's representative body.

Police remuneration figures obtained by the Northern Advocate reveal the number of staff in the district paid in excess of $140,000 rose from nine to 31 between the 2015 and 2016 financial years - an increase of 22 staff, or 240 per cent, in one year.

Fifty-three extra staff were paid above $100,000 in the 2015/16 year, an increase of 46 per cent from the 114 personnel earning that figure a year earlier.

There are now more Northland police staff earning above $100,000 (167) than there are earning below $80,000 (132).

Labour MP for Te Tai Tokerau Kelvin Davis said the figures were surprising after a mixed year for Northland policing.

"That makes me raise my eyebrows. We've had some pretty bad press over the past 12 months, and yet we've had managers earning that sort of increase. That's the question - is Northland getting a benefit from that?

"On the face of it, it would seem that [with] 22 extra highly paid police managers we haven't actually seen the results on the ground. Maybe it takes time for the results to filter through."

An article in the Police Association's December 2016 magazine entitled 'Staff crisis affects duties' said: "Some basic policing is becoming untenable in Northland as a result of working with minimum, or below, staffing numbers.

"Offenders are not being arrested because officers know there is no one to look after them."

Mr Davis said he has no problems with Northland police being resourced well as long as it was being allocated appropriately.

"We need men and women in blue doing the job on the ground and not just sitting behind a desk in Whangarei pushing paper."

Police deputy chief executive for people Kaye Ryan did not specifically address the Northland District remuneration figures, but said in a written response to the Advocate 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.

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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 in annual salaries being around 4 per cent higher.

Nationwide, 39 per cent more police staff were paid more than $100,000 in 2016. Another 1286 police staff received six figures, rising from a headcount of 3307 to 4593.

Deputy Prime Minister and Police Minister Paula Bennett's office did not respond to a request for comment.