Police Association boss and Opposition accuse Government of ‘misleading’ claims over its 1800 new ‘frontline’ police

As the Government celebrates its milestone of putting “1800 new police officers on the beat”, it can be revealed 270 of them don’t have arrest powers and work predominantly within stations.

Police Association president Chris Cahill and National police spokesman Mark Mitchell allege the Government has been misleading.

“They’re not what the public would call a police officer,” Cahill said.

On June 1, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Police Minister Ginny Andersen travelled to Porirua’s police college to celebrate training 1800 new police officers since the Government came to power.

The promise was made by the Labour and NZ First coalition in 2018 and has been repeatedly referred to as an investment in “frontline” staff. Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern previously told Parliament the 1800 officers would be “sworn”.

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But numbers provided to the Herald by police show 270 of the recruits are “authorised officers”, who legally do not have the power to arrest. Most of these 270 staff are known as “specialist crime investigators” and include those working in electronic crime or as forensic accountants.

A November 2022 report from the Independent Police Conduct Authority said police were “failing to meet the challenges that the present fraud landscape poses”. Police said at the time that given the scale and nature of the fraud problem, prevention measures were of primary importance in reducing victimisation.

According to the Policing Act, authorised officers are defined as police employees holding the roles of a station jailor, escort, guard, specialist investigator or transport enforcement officer. They wear black uniforms instead of blue.

Training for authorised officers varies but typically is shorter and less intensive than the 16-week training course required for constabulary officers.

There are just over 10,000 constabulary officers on the beat nationwide, supplemented by 525 authorised officers. More than half of the authorised officers - 270 - were established in the past five years under the 1800 new police plan. Fifty of them joined in May.

Police Association president Chris Cahill. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Cahill said while authorised officers were always part of the plans Cabinet agreed to in 2018, to call all new officers “frontline” and “on the beat” was misleading.

“They’re not frontline, they’re not sworn officers, and they don’t have the powers of arrest,” he said. “They’re not what the public would call a police officer.

“Without clarification, it is misleading. [The Government is] not breaching their agreement, but they need to be clear to the public that 270 of those are not sworn police officers. They’re of great value - but they’re not sworn.”

National’s Mitchell said Andersen and former police ministers Poto Williams and Hipkins “intentionally deceived and misled New Zealanders”.

“Two-hundred-and-seventy of those included in the 1800 are not police officers. They don’t have powers of arrest and are back-office workers with no presence or ability to respond to violent offending on our streets,” he said.

“This is a deceptive and shabby way to treat New Zealanders, but consistent with this soft-on-crime Government’s approach to public safety.”

Andersen said the Government committed to an increase of 1800 additional constabulary staff, and this was met on June 1.

When asked directly by NZME if labelling all 1800 new officers as “frontline” was misleading, she replied: “The Government’s commitment has always included authorised officers. This was set out in the initial Cabinet paper in 2018, which has been released publicly.”

National MP Mark Mitchell said the government has deceived New Zealanders. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“The authorised officer designation was established in 2008 under the Policing Act. They’ve been included in constabulary numbers since then, including during the National Government, who counted them as constabulary for the nine years it was in government,” Andersen said.

She said the work these officers would do, such as in high-tech crime, often required experience that was hard to get in existing constabulary employees.

Andersen is not the first MP to be accused of misrepresenting figures in recent months. In March, Te Whatu Ora apologised after numbers shared by Health Minister Ayesha Verrall were found to be inaccurate.

National’s health spokesman Shane Reti also faced criticism after Verrall accused him of misrepresenting data to make it appear the health system had lost a sizeable chunk of its staff.

Growing demand for frontline police

As reports of retail and violent crime increase, Cahill said that demand for frontline officers had grown significantly.

“The world is quite different from 2017. We clearly have a demand from the public for more frontline, visible policing. The increase in the demand for police over that time is dramatic. The public wants to see more blue shirts on the street.”

According to police data, reports of retail crime have increased 60 per cent since 2017. While the increase could be explained by changes to reporting methods, other sources such as supermarket giant Foodstuffs have reported a 37 per cent jump in retail crime.

Reported victimisations for violent offending have also risen sharply since 2017.

The frequency of ram raids has increased in recent months. Photo / Hayden Woodward

One of the hallmark law and order policies of the Government, the boost in policing numbers was born out of Budget 2017 when the then National Government pledged to increase the force by 880 constabulary officers.

By Budget 2018, the Labour and NZ First Government had come to power and promised to boost the existing plans by a further 670 constabulary officers and 250 authorised officers.

There are currently 10,184 constabulary officers and 525 authorised officers, making up the total force of 10,709.

Ethan Griffiths covers crime and justice stories nationwide. He joined NZME in 2020, previously working as a regional reporter in Whanganui and South Taranaki.