500 extra police: Challenges of lower success rate, higher attrition, flagged with ministers

• Police face challenges meeting the target of training 500 new officers in two years.
• Applicant success rates have dropped, and attrition has increased to 5.5%, linked to Australian recruitment.
• Labour’s Ginny Andersen says the Government’s target is unlikely to be met by November.

Police have flagged challenges in meeting the target of training 500 new cops within two years – including a lower applicant success rate, and more people leaving the police.

In February, Police briefed Minister Mark Mitchell, and Associate Minister Casey Costello, on issues relating to “recruit readiness” including the physical test – contributing to a 1% drop in the applicant success rate.

It also highlighted attrition for the police constabulary workforce has increased over the past year to 5.5%, above the decade-long average of 4.5% – saying a link can be drawn to recent Australian recruitment campaigns.

Costello, who holds the delegation for the 500-police target, says taking a monthly snapshot doesn’t provide a full picture – and the past year has seen a dramatic increase in the number of applicants and recruits.

Police have also noted a slight decrease in attrition since the February report – 5.4%, at March 31 – but say they face significant pressure from Australian recruiters targeting New Zealand cops.

But Labour’s police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen says all reports indicate it won’t be possible for the Government to meet its target of 500 cops by November.

“The increased applicants that police are receiving are simply not translating into recruits,” she said.

“I’ve had reports from people who say they’re really struggling to get those recruits over the line and this [briefing] makes it really clear that they’ve even engaged some special training to give advice and support to recruits to help them pass that physical test.”

Labour police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen. Photo / Mark Mitchell

This month NZME revealed a November briefing to incoming Police Commissioner Richard Chambers had projected the target would not be met until June next year, seven months after the initial deadline, assuming all recruit wings were full.

The February aide-memoire, released to NZME under the Official Information Act, updated the ministers on initiatives under way to support the target of 500 police by November this year.

It highlighted a significant increase in applicants – with more than 700 in January this year – but stated “many recruit applicants are not meeting entry requirements when these are required”.

It said the most common requirement frequently missed is the Physical Appraisal Test (PAT), stating it had engaged High Performance Sport New Zealand to help prepare a training guide for applicants, and police in many districts were providing run clubs.

Superintendent Kelly Ryan told NZME the mention of High Performance Sport New Zealand was added to this briefing in error – with police physical education officers providing material for the training guide.

Police say there has been a significant increase in applications – more than 700 in January alone. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The document said issues relating to recruit readiness (not limited to the PAT) had contributed to a 1% drop in success rate, for the period of July–December 2024, when compared to the same period the previous year.

Ryan said police had expected a reduction in recruit readiness as it widened its candidate pool – allowing those on a resident visa and restricted driving licence to apply.

“We are also working hard to get applicants through the pipeline and into training as fast as possible,” Ryan said.

“This means that recruits previously had more time to train whilst in the recruitment pipeline, but now don’t have as long to get prepared.“

Ryan said fitness groups have been arranged in the Southern, Wellington, Bay of Plenty, Eastern and Waikato districts, with Waitematā, Northland and Waikato also running rehearsal PAT sessions.

Counties Manukau has also connected applicants with their local parkrun to help them prepare.

Police said as of April 14 there was a total of 10,175 FTE police constables, not including 76 recruits due to graduate last Thursday.

The Government had committed to training 500 more officers within two years, above the 10,211 police employed when the coalition agreements were signed in late 2023.

Associate Police Minister Casey Costello. Photo / Mike Scott.

Costello said police have continued to optimise the recruitment and training process – including recruiting leads co-ordinating activities in each district and creating opportunities for potential applicants to engage with local cops.

“With the applicant pool being so much larger and the timelines to prepare being faster, it’s not surprising to see that there has been a very small reduction - of 1% - in recruit readiness when compared to the same period in 2023, before these changes were made.”

Police briefed the ministers that 5,277 applications were received in the second half of last year – more than twice the number of applications for the same period in 2023 - with changes to eligibility criteria accounting for nearly 40% of them.

The briefing also projected up to 100 former employees to re-join police this year.

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.