Police Commissioner Richard Chambers emailed police leaders four days after the Herald revealed police applicants were being allowed to start college despite failing fitness standards.
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told colleagues the Royal New Zealand Police College (RNZPC) was “struggling with its identity” in a blunt assessment of leadership, culture and standards at the recruit training centre, according to emails obtained by the Herald.
Chambers emailed executive leaders on May 2 – four days after the Herald revealed some police college applicants were exempted from meeting fitness standards, and that dozens of recruits across multiple wings graduated despite skipping swimming assessments.
“I believe RNZPC may be struggling with its identity. This is a question of values, pride and brand,” Chambers said in an email on May 2.
“Over time we seem to have shifted away from the mechanisms that help set the culture,” he said.
Chambers wanted rapid change at RNZPC, the email stated.
“A significant amount of effort has been put in over recent years but this has not landed in the place that we had hoped it would. Change is required. We need to be bold, quick and clinical,” he said.
He said the success of leaders was “being impacted” and standards of recruits, staff and courses were not up to scratch.
Chambers made the reason leadership was being impacted clear in his email.
However, the crucial detail was redacted in the document provided to the Herald.
“Decision making also needs to be at the right level and with that comes accountability,” his email continued.
Police initiated a wide-ranging audit after Herald inquiries and the audit found discretionary decisions were “common practice” and had been made in areas including fitness tests, English tests and psychometric testing.
The Herald’s been told use of discretion started to be clawed back from April after the Herald’s reporting, with a policy of no exemptions being permitted by mid-June.
However, it’s taken months to get the situation under control. The most recent wing at the RNZPC is the first where no applicant has been given any leeway.
Since the exemptions debacle, there’s been an overhaul in the leadership at the RNZPC.
Superintendent Sam Keats has taken over full time as RNZPC director and has been in the role for six weeks.
Former training boss Superintendent Warwick Morehu resigned after accepting a leadership position at Oranga Tamariki in the Bay of Plenty.
Keats’ second-in-command, Inspector Paula Holt, has just started in a newly created position as RNZPC operations manager.
Keats told the Herald there’s been a reset in expectations at the RNZPC.
“We’ve got performance panels that operate weekly that review everything from the academic and practical side of training through to the behavioural sides as well,” he said.
On Monday, the Herald revealed the details of an internal police survey where 230 senior police gave their views on recruit readiness once they left the RNZPC.
More than 50% of respondents didn’t think new staff were well-equipped with knowledge of the procedures to make an arrest or lay charges, and more than 80% were critical of competence when it came to file preparation.
Keats said training is being reviewed and changes will be made early next year.
He was firm in his views on standards and said recruits won’t be allowed to work on the frontline unless they’ve met all requirements.
“No recruit will graduate from here, unless they pass all of the academic, practical, and integrated assessments.”
On Monday, Chambers was at the RNZPC to inspect a recruit parade - a tradition he reinstated soon after starting as Commissioner.
Chambers spoke to recruits on Monday and emphasised his expectations of the new leadership team.
“Thank you for your work to ensure that our values stand firm here at the RNZPC and that anything which falls short of that expectation is addressed with authority,” he said.
The Government’s commitment to recruit 500 new police by the end of November won’t be met.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Herald Now it might be “a couple of months later” than planned.
“We are happy to miss the target. We are not going to sacrifice the quality of police officers in their training,” he said.
Over the past few months, Police Minister Mark Mitchell has gradually pulled away from promising to hit the target by November, despite it being labelled a “priority” by the coalition Government.
Another email released to the Herald shows how focused Chambers has been on hitting that target – and the challenge to make it happen in reality.
“Delivery of the 500 is one of our top organisational priorities,” he said in an email to other police leaders on February 20.
“To date, I am not convinced that there has been the necessary leadership and strategic direction given to this programme for it to deliver at the pace which is expected to meet the Government’s commitment,” he said.
He went on to say police are struggling to get enough recruits into training wings at the RNZPC.
“This presents a significant reputational risk for the police,” he said.
Keats said police are “100% behind” getting more officers on the beat but didn’t say whether he personally felt under pressure to deliver.
“We are supporting accelerating bringing people into the college and growing our workforce, provided that they meet the robust criteria that get them here.”
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.