The Herald can reveal a senior police officer and a frontrunner to be Police Commissioner Richard Chambers’ permanent deputy allowed recruits who failed fitness standards into police college.
Police have confirmed Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers, who is in charge of training and development, allowed at least two applicants who failed the physical appraisal test (PAT) to begin training at police college.
The PAT, considered a key prerequisite for entry into police college, comprises four components including a 2.4km run, vertical jump, press-ups and a grip strength test.
“There had been a practice of discretion applied to some applicants in relation to the physical appraisal test. Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers can recall two occasions in the last year where she gave approval for discretion to be applied to two applicants,” a police spokeswoman told the Herald.
Police now appear to be investigating whether Rogers approved exemptions in more than two instances.
“We are searching available documentation to confirm this number,” the police spokeswoman said.
Rogers is one of the leading candidates to replace Jevon McSkimming as the next Deputy Police Commissioner.
The admission she bent the rules for some recruits raises questions about public assurances from Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Chambers that no direction was given to deviate from police policy.
When asked during a scrutiny week select committee hearing on Monday who ordered the drop in standards, Mitchell said that hadn’t happened.
“That is very operational, but from my own perspective as minister, I don’t think there was any specific order ever to drop standards,” he said.
Chambers backed up the minister’s assertion, confirming “there was no direction or order” to drop standards.
After the hearing, Chambers said discretion had been applied by “decision makers in recruitment” and “others at police college”.
Asked if anyone in the police executive had said applying discretion was allowed, Chambers denied that was the case.
“Not that I’m aware of, no,” he said on Monday.
This is despite Rogers informing Chambers in April – more than two months ago – that she’d approved some candidates who failed fitness standards to start at police college.
The Herald revealed in April that candidates who failed the PAT were given exemptions to start at police college anyway.
Subsequently, police announced they would carry out an audit, which confirmed breaches in several areas.
The audit’s preliminary findings found:
The police audit into recruitment standards found discretionary decisions to allow failed candidates into police college had become common.
However, the Herald understands some staff feel they’ve been unfairly blamed for deviating from recruitment policy.
Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen told the Herald it would be unlikely frontline staff would make exemptions for failed candidates without top-level approval.
“In a hierarchical organisation such as New Zealand Police, people follow rules strictly, and in order to use discretion to pass people through [into police college] it would need to come from the police executive,” she said.
She believed Mitchell and Chambers have been misleading.
“I asked a straight-up question during scrutiny week as to whether a direction or an order was given for recruits to be let through [into police college] and the answer from both the minister and the commissioner of police was that that had not occurred,” she said.
She said the Herald’s revelations about Rogers’ use of discretion for some candidates contradicted the pair’s statements.
“I believe that both the minister and the commissioner have not been upfront with New Zealanders,” she told the Herald.
Chambers told the Herald that Rogers informed him she’d allowed some failed recruits into police college in late April.
He said the candidates she approved for training “pre-dated my request for an audit” and his instruction for exemptions to stop.
“There was nothing out of order about Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers making those decisions at the time, given her role as assistant commissioner: leadership, talent and development,” he said.
Chambers denied being misleading.
He told the Herald discretionary decisions about candidates were made on a “case-by-case basis”.
“They do not amount in any way to a general instruction or ‘order’ around the use of discretion,” he told the Herald.
The Herald asked Mitchell’s office if his statements were misleading, but he did not answer the question.
Instead, Mitchell said the Government had strengthened recruit training since coming to power by reinstating a 20-week training course.
“When it became apparent that some new recruits weren’t meeting the standard required to start their recruit training, we were clear that the Government did not find that acceptable,” he told the Herald.
The Government set a “priority” target of recruiting 500 extra police officers to bolster frontline numbers by November this year – a target Chambers has consistently said is “ambitious”.
Chambers was unable to say when exactly police would hit the Government’s goal.
“I’ve put additional resource in place to reach that 500 mark as soon as possible but I can’t give you a date at this point. Of course, I want to go faster but we also have to deal with attrition, which is sitting at about 5.5%,” he said on Monday.
Rogers holds key roles in recruitment and has been helping oversee the drive to increase the number of frontline staff.
In July last year, police said in a press statement that they were opening the recruitment pipeline to “thousands of additional applicants” by removing barriers to entry.
Rogers said applicants with a restricted driver’s licence would be able to apply, as well as those who had a resident visa that allowed them to work in New Zealand.
While those tweaks allowed a greater number of people to apply, Rogers was adamant that getting into police college would not be made easier.
“Our standards remain very high and that will not change,” she said at the time.
In a statement provided to the Herald, Rogers denied she’d approved substandard candidates because of being under pressure to meet Government targets.
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.
There are no female candidates in Wellington's mayoral race this year.