Top cop on steering the ship through tragedy and into a new era of policing

Friday, 18 April 2025

Five months into his role as the country’s top cop, Richard Chambers has already led the police through the death of a respected senior officer, a sweeping crackdown on retail crime and a shakeup of the top brass. So, where to from here? Katie Ham reports.

New Year’s Eve this year looked different for Richard Chambers.

Just five weeks into his new job as Police Commissioner, he donned his vest and joined colleagues on the frontline at party hotspots across the North Island’s east coast.

Chambers was in Taupō with his wife and two daughters for the holiday period, but was eager to support police on one of the busiest nights of the year, visiting Tokoroa, Tauranga and Mt Maunganui across the evening.

“I didn’t get back to where we were staying until about 1am,” he told The Post in an exclusive interview. He climbed into bed, hoping not to wake the rest of his family.

But, just over an hour later, Chambers ‒ a self-described light sleeper ‒ was woken by the sound of his phone ringing. It was a call no commissioner wants to receive.

Two police officers, Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming and Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay, had been struck by a vehicle in Nelson’s Buxton Square while conducting a routine foot patrol.

“It was literally only minutes after the incident happened, but I turned to my wife and said, ‘this doesn’t look good’.”

He got up, apologised to his wife and ironed a fresh police shirt. His holiday was over.

“I drove to Wellington straight away, getting updates on the way. I got on the first plane and was in Nelson by 9am,” the 52-year-old recalls.

By the time most of the country woke up on New Year’s Day, Chambers was preparing to deliver the news that Fleming had died ‒ the first female police officer to do so in the line of duty in New Zealand.

A man has since been charged with Fleming's murder and Ramsay's attempted murder, alongside other charges. He remains before the courts and cannot be named due to ongoing suppression orders.

“It’s tough at any time, but certainly so early for me, it was tough to realise that as the commissioner one of the things that I need to always have in mind is the leadership that I need to show through the toughest times.”

Trading boardrooms for beat patrols

The Post sat down with Chambers on a Thursday and that week alone he’d already visited Nelson, Murchison, Reefton, Hokitika, Greymouth and Westport.

“On my very first day as commissioner, I said to my colleagues that while I may be based here at Police National Headquarters in Wellington, I’m not going to be here too often.”

And certainly Chambers has kept his word, often forgoing boardrooms in favour of spending his days walking the beat.

“It’s me putting myself in their world to understand what frontline policing is like so that I can be better for them as their leader,” he explains.

With the role of commissioner placing Chambers at the helm of 15,000 staff across the motu, it’s no mean feat to try and stay in tune with sentiments of the masses.

But welcomed to virtual fanfare from officers on the ground when he took on the role in late November, Chambers has clearly been saying and doing the right things.

He’s also been clear about his priorities for his five-year tenure from day one ‒ supporting the safety and wellbeing of frontline staff, strengthening “core policing” and law enforcement, visible and connected leadership, and sharp fiscal management.

So, how is Chambers tracking with these four goals?

Body cameras for the frontline

With an increased focus on the safety of police officers in the wake of Fleming’s death, one idea Chambers is homing in on is the possibility of body cameras for cops. The benefits, he says, could be far-reaching.

“One of them is the evidential value of telling a story, because it’s captured. But also cameras can help keep my staff safe in terms of decision-making and how that can influence the next steps we take when dealing with volatile situations.”

In a world where the actions of police are often captured on the public’s mobile phones, Chambers is acutely aware videos uploaded to social media, for example, show only one side of the story.

A team is now working to understand the technology that is around in the body camera market globally, he says.

The day the Chambers spoke to The Post he’d just had a conversation with staff in Westport over a cup of tea and some sausage rolls about how to improve the wellbeing services available to police staff.

“Because of the volatility and trauma that police officers are exposed to, the question I’ve got to ask is are the support structures in policing good enough to make it easy for them to get help?

“We’ve lost police officers over the years because they’ve really struggled to deal with a particular incident. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a very real thing in policing, so I want to look at what I can do to better support my colleagues.”

Quite how this will be done, however, is the million-dollar question.

A ‘core policing’ crackdown

Four days before Chambers stepped into the role, new laws banning the wearing of gang insignia in any public place came into effect.

From there a steady trickle of arrests under the new gang legislation began, but the expected windfall of arrests never eventuated. Instead, fears of mass rebellion and protests proved unfounded and overnight gang patches seemed to mostly disappear from New Zealand’s streets.

“I’m grateful that the compliance level across gang members is so high. But I also want to acknowledge the outstanding work of my staff in policing breaches when they’re identified.

“From here on, we will continue to put significant pressure on gangs. They know what the law is and if they choose to ignore it, then they can expect the heat from us.”

Also in the policing spotlight is retail crime, having become a hot political topic after Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced his intention to give businesses more power to detain those stealing from them through the expansion of citizen’s arrest powers.

The proposal landed with a dull thud among frontline police, who told The Post they feared the new rules could pose “huge safety risks”.

This seemed to be a sentiment echoed by Chambers. His concerns are couched in more politically astute language though.

“Our job is to enforce the law. Whatever the law is, we will work really hard to enforce it. Safety is always paramount. Whether that’s of my staff or the public, safety will always be paramount.

“I don’t want there to be consequences when people take on something that they perhaps aren’t trained or qualified to take on. Policing can be a very volatile career, and I don’t want there to be harm caused to the public through the decisions they make.”

Teams within the police are working “really hard” to tackle increasing rates of retail crime, he says.

Some particularly “outstanding” results were seen in Tauranga and Gisborne through their prioritisation of responding quickly to retail crimes and working hard to bring the cases to a resolution, Chambers says.

A fight for the 500

Last year, Associate Police Minister Casey Costello announced the ambitious target of bolstering the police frontline by 500 officers by the end of 2025.

At the time, there were 10,112 constabulary staff, according to data collected by the Police Association. This month there are 10,217, marking a net gain of 105.

Chambers dubbed the target “aspirational”, but says police are “working incredibly hard to make sure that we give ourselves the best chance of success” in reaching that goal.

More than 320 recruits are at Police College at the moment, with a first of its kind Auckland wing due to open in June. At the moment, all officers have to travel to Wellington for 20 weeks to undergo training.

One particular thorn in the side of the police recruitment campaign has been the efforts from Australian forces to poach Kiwi cops. But the tides could be about to change.

Earlier this year, Chambers travelled to Brisbane to award a couple of former Kiwi cops for work they had done. He found himself at the Queensland Police Academy, being asked to speak to two police wings in training.

“Next thing I know I’m standing in front of a lectern addressing the group, and actually amongst them were some of my former colleagues. I said, ‘look, thanks very much for your service to New Zealand’.

“Yes, they’d elected to go to Queensland but they’re still part of the police family. But I did say to them: ‘if any of you would like to come home, please reach out to me directly’.”

When five of them did, Chambers called each one.

“While their reasons for coming home are different, they realise that what we have in the New Zealand Police ‒ while we’re not perfect, no-one is ‒ is a sense of camaraderie and a culture of belonging to the police family.”

In January, Chambers also made his first bold move as commissioner ‒ a proposed restructure of the police top brass that would see 37 executive roles cut.

He felt the executive got “too big and too expensive”, so the right thing to do was to restructure and reduce that burden.

“It’s about ensuring every dollar of the taxpayer’s money that we spend is a good investment. There’s no room for wastage in policing.”

Now complete, Chambers plans on re-investing the savings into the frontline. Perhaps on the body cameras or on improving deficiencies in the police property portfolio.

The property problem child

From toxic black mould, to leaks and chronic overcrowding, regional police stations have undeniably been crying out for capital expenditure for years.

In November, The Post took stock of the extent of the problem. Among the most extreme examples were staff at the Greymouth police station, who had resorted to wearing masks in the building to work around the black mould problem and overcrowding in Rolleston meaning some officers have lockers inside the disabled toilet cubicle.

“Particularly in rural communities, investment in police stations and police homes hasn’t always been what it should have been so with some of the savings we’ve been making, I’ve been able to deal with a lot of the deferred maintenance,” Chambers says.

Police stations that need total replacing like Greymouth, Blenheim, Hamilton and Gore are going to be more significant projects, he warns.

“It’s no different to running your own home. If you don’t deal with issues early, they become bigger.”

The importance of balance

The new commissioner isn’t easing into the job ‒ he’s charging in at full tilt.

“There’s never enough hours in the day. For me, I really want to do lots and sometimes I need to slow down and make sure I look after myself too.”

It has also, at times, required sacrifices from Chambers’ whānau.

Having landed back in New Zealand just days before he was announced as the new commissioner Chambers had to leave behind his wife and two teenage daughters behind in France, where he had previously been stationed with Interpol.

The trio joined him on Christmas Eve and were looking forward to some much-needed time together after months apart.

But, of course, duty called when the phone rang in the early hours of New Year’s Eve.

“Policing for me is 24/7. If the phone goes in the night, I answer it. Of course I do, because we aren’t a Monday to Friday service.”

You can read more about Richard Chambers’ background and policing career here.