Briefing warns Government won’t hit target of 500 extra police officers by promised deadline

• A police briefing predicts the Government’s target of 500 extra officers will be delayed until June next year.
• Police Minister Mark Mitchell called the goal “aspirational” but said efforts are on track.
• Recruit wings are being expanded to 100, with a new training facility in Auckland.

A police briefing predicts the Government will not achieve its target of 500 extra cops until June next year — seven months later than promised — and assuming each recruit wing is full.

The briefing, from November last year and released under the Official Information Act, states meeting the target in June assumes each wing of recruits is full — which Labour’s police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen describes as “incredibly ambitious”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister for Justice Paul Goldsmit. Photo / Dean Purcell

Andersen believes even the target of June 2026 now seems like “a stretch”, given she says it can be challenging to fill the wings to capacity.

“It seems like there’s lots of interest in applying to be a police recruit, but that’s not translating into actual recruits when the process has gone through,” she said.

“They have really struggled to fill the wings to 80, and I think they will struggle again to fill those wings to 100.”

Labour Police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Police Minister Mark Mitchell admitted the goal of 500 more cops was an “aspirational target” and noted it cannot be guaranteed each wing would be full – but said police assured him they were on track.

He added the opening of a second training facility in Auckland would also make a difference.

Numbers provided by police show four wings training as of March 27, one with an expanded capacity of 90 recruits — and three others with 78, 75 and 70 recruits (with a capacity of 80). Wings are also being expanded to 100 this month.

Police noted some recruits do not graduate with their wing, “if they haven’t completed all components required to graduate in time, such as if they are injured during training”.

One of the Government’s key law and order policies was to train 500 new police officers within two years in office (November 2025) — an agreement between National and New Zealand First.

The new projection comes from a briefing to incoming Police Commissioner Richard Chambers, from November.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The document said current projections indicate police will reach 10,711 constables when Wing 395 graduates on June 26, 2026 — 500 more than when the Government took office (10,211).

But it goes on to state this assumes “each recruit wing is full” at either 80 or 100, and “constabulary attrition of 5.1% in 2024 and 5.3% in 2025”.

Mitchell said he was confident the target could be achieved — but acknowledged there were always unknowns around the number of graduates from each wing.

“There are, obviously, people who are vetted and aren’t suitable, so you can’t guarantee that you’ll hit that target on every wing, but they’ll be working very hard to achieve that.”

Meanwhile, Associate Police Minister Casey Costello, the minister with the delegation for the target, said the November briefing did not reflect significant investment and initiatives, including the new Auckland training facility.

“Attracting, training and getting quality new police on the beat takes a bit of time and we always knew more of the 500 would be delivered near the end of this year as recruitment efforts ramped up.”

She said police reported an unprecedented number of applications last year.

Associate Police Minister Casey Costello has the delegation for meeting the 500 Police target. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell

“With 1371 applications, July 2024 had the highest number of applications for any month since the police national database was created in 2014. By comparison, July 2023 saw 351 applications.”

An excerpt from the briefing to Chambers stated: “There is considerable risk around achieving the required constable strength”, leading to the decision to increase wings from 80 to 100 recruits from April 2025.

500 Programme director Superintendent Kelly Ryan told NZME as of March 17, there were 10,224 constable roles — not including 326 recruits going through training.

Ryan said the wing capacity had been increased sooner than initially planned, with 90 recruits in the wing that began on March 17.

“The change was in response to a major surge in applications and will help ensure quality applicants move through the pipeline and into training faster.”

Ryan said while they were committed to delivering the 500 additional police, high standards and the rigorous selection process will not change.

In the past 12 months, 98% of recruits who commenced training had graduated.

Sophie Trigger is Newstalk ZB’s senior political reporter. She joined the New Zealand Herald in 2020, before moving to Newstalk ZB and the Press Gallery in 2022.