Will regional New Zealand get a fair share of the promised 500 frontline officers?

Tuesday, 19 December 2023

The Government shouldn’t forget the need for officers in the regions when promising to deliver 500 frontline police officers over the next two years, the Police Association says.

In the coalition agreement between National, Act and NZ First, the three parties have committed to adding 500 new frontline police officers over the next two years.

Police Association president Chris Cahill said the challenge for this policy was how these officers would be distributed and whether the regions would get their “fair share”.

Earlier this year, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party would introduce a further 300 officers if re-elected to power to create a national ratio of one officer for every 470 New Zealanders.

This would have been “the best ratio in modern history”, Hipkins said at the time, and an improvement on the 1:541 ratio Labour inherited when elected in 2017.

But in regional New Zealand, the ratio looks different.

As of January 1, 2023, there were 154.7 full-time equivalent (FTE) frontline officers in Taranaki – an increase of 20.3 since January 2018.

Using 2018 census population data, this equates to a ratio of one frontline police officer to about 759.9 residents.

In Manawatū, there were 223 FTE officers, up 11.5 since January 2018, while Whanganui had 150 FTE, up by 23.1 officers in January, with a ratio for the Whanganui-Manawatū area of one officer for every 640 residents.

In the Nelson Bays area there were 112.8 FTE frontline officers, up by 10, and a ratio of 451 residents to one police officer.

Marlborough had 84.9 FTE frontline officers, up by 9.7, and a ratio of one officer to 557 people.

Meanwhile, Southland had 127.5 FTE frontline officers, up by 8.5. The region had a current ratio of one officer to 764 people.

Cahill said it was difficult to have a golden ratio of police officers within a region.

Each region had different “challenges, different population levels and different places” and some communities required more police presence than others.

What was important was having an officer number that reflected what made the community feel safe, he said.

New Police Minister Mark Mitchell has said the previous Labour government “never properly” funded a ratio of 1:480 and while it would be “up to police” as to where they deployed new officers, the National-led Government had been very clear it wanted to see “resources and numbers pushed to the front line”.

The problem would be attracting people to join the police, Cahill said.

“The recruiting pipeline is drying up.”

But two current officers – Constable Char Lucas, a community officer in Feilding, and Constable Stu Newton, Stewart Island’s sole officer – are hopeful there will be people willing to join the force.

Lucas said she joined because she wanted to help her community.

From day to day, she could be joining locals at the Feilding markets on a Friday, speaking at community events, doing investigations, or helping kids in the combined adolescent challenge training unit (CACTUS) development programme.

Sometimes she gets called out to a cow on the road but never finds it. Her to-do lists might never get finished, but every day there is something new.

“Time has gone really fast since joining [the police] and, yeah, I love that.”

For Newton, policing has a finesse to it.

“In an ideal world” it was about helping people to find a resolution that would benefit everyone and, with luck, prevent issues recurring, he said.

Newton has had some adventures in the job, including getting a sea lion back down to the beach and seeing two male kiwi fight it out for a female. He also got to meet actor David Hasselhoff earlier this year.

Another day could involve interviewing people for their firearms licence, making a plan to stop visitors trespassing into places they shouldn’t, or catching up with the local nurse.

Both encouraged anyone interested to look into becoming an officer.