The fight for 500: A police ‘recruitment crisis’ or the best year yet?

Saturday, 29 November 2025

The initial deadline for the Government’s flagship promise of 500 extra police has sailed past, but Police HQ remains hopeful they’re not far off the target amid a ramped-up recruitment drive and a trans-Tasman tug-of-war for officers.

In May 2024, Associate Police Minister Casey Costello announced the ambitious target of bolstering the frontline by 500 officers by November 27, 2025 in a bid to fulfil the coalition’s promise to clamp down on crime.

At the time, there were 10,112 constabulary staff. There are now 10,451, marking a net gain of 339.

But according to Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Tusha Penny, the failure to meet the target isn’t necessarily all it seems, with a further 313 recruits in training.

“If we look at this year, by December we will have added roughly 900 constabulary staff […] This is by far the most we’ve ever trained in a year,” Penny said.

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The 900 was broken into approximately 800 new trainees, and 90 “rejoins”. While the majority of the “rejoins” were those coming back to police after taking a career break, some were being lured back from Australia, she said.

“We know that Australian jurisdictions are frequent fliers into New Zealand, trying to poach our amazing staff. So, in the last week, we’ve had staff over there meeting officers face-to-face.”

The appeal of Australia was clear, Penny acknowledged: 'We just can’t compete with the money“.

The current offer from the Northern Territory for officers who have previously served in New Zealand reflects how many years they’ve served in the police force.

For example, a Kiwi officer with five years’ police service could expect to earn a base salary of A$86,241 with a $20,000 relocation boost and a housing allowance of $31,214 - a package worth approximately NZ$152,316.

In comparison, an officer working in New Zealand in their fifth year of service would have a yearly income of about NZ$91,284.

Queensland police launched a similar campaign with the tagline “warmer days and higher pays”, and the New South Wales force is also actively recruiting.

In response, New Zealand Police now offer a relocation reimbursement grant of up to $15,000 for officers in Australia who want to return home.

Officers relocating from the South Island to fill vacancies in Northland can receive up to $10,000 to cover the move.

“If it comes down to a financial position, New Zealand Police is going to lose, we can’t compete,” Penny said.

The grants come amid a tranche of new recruitment campaigns by New Zealand Police, including tongue-in-cheek videos featuring Police Commissioner Richard Chambers on a recruitment Facebook page and Auckland Transport buses decked out in police livery.

“I think when the Government first made the investment, we ran it as business-as-usual, but when you’ve got such a big target, you need to be very deliberate,” Penny said.

This approach began in earnest when Chambers stepped into the top role last year, who stressed the urgency and the importance of a deliberate, targeted campaign.

“It isn’t sexy but it’s forced us to look at whether our systems are efficient, and the answer was that we needed to make some pretty drastic improvements along the recruiting pipeline, which has gone from 13 months to seven.

“We might have come to the party late, but we’ve come well dressed,” Penny said.

What remains to be seen is what effect the recent fallout from the Jevon McSkimming scandal will have on prospective police applicants: “I think that’s something we’ll be cognisant of,” Penny said.

Police Association president Steve Watt, however, warned the situation was far more precarious and indicative of a “recruitment crisis”.

“The Government need to get real and address underlying issues, such as pay and working conditions. These days, you can go out and become an apprentice for an industry and get paid much more than the starting salary for a constable.

“So, why would you take a lower wage to be assault, kicked, punched, spat at?”

A “classic example” of the mismatch between police pay and living conditions were food banks that had popped up at stations around the motu, Watt said.

While renewed recruitment efforts were “good”, Watt warned against reading too much into applicant numbers.

“What we’re seeing at the moment is only 6% of applicants meeting the standard to enter Police College and qualify to be constables.”

Maintaining those standards for entry were “vitally important”, he said. This year alone, police were left to reckon with applicants who’d failed fitness and English tests making it into the college.

“The reality is as soon as we drop those standards, it puts not only the recruits at risk, but the public too.”

A looming “retirement bubble” - a large cohort approaching retirement age - meant police weren’t out of the woods yet too.

“All of these numbers and election promises are like sugar hits, which exposes the danger of matching political aspirations with reality. What we really need is a steady focus on growth to keep up with policing demands”.

One frontline Auckland police sergeant told The Post an emerging issue was the lack of experience of officers being recruited.

“The staff are so junior, it’s not like we’re recruiting experienced cops. They’re so young and don’t have the life experience, but realistically no one who’s older could afford to take a pay cut to join the police,” the officer said.

A North Island detective dubbed the 500 officers “an empty election promise”.

Labour’s police spokesperson, Ginny Andersen, echoed these concerns.

“The Government initially promised the 500 by November 27, then they said it would be June ‘26, then August ‘26, and now September ‘26. I think it really undermines public trust when they’re unable to deliver on their promises,” Andersen said.

“We know that people don’t typically join the police for money, they do it because they believe in serving their communities, but when you’ve got active recruiters coming over from Australia offering six-figure salaries, that’s starting to look really tempting for some of our officers and their families.”

But Associate Police Minister Casey Costello rejected any assertion of a “recruitment crisis”.

“We have the highest number of frontline police in New Zealand’s history,” Costello told The Post.

She said the 500-officer pledge was always ambitious but had sparked record interest, new training capacity in Auckland, and a rebuilt pipeline after years when recruitment barely kept pace with attrition.

“Overall, police will have brought in approximately 900 new constables – graduates through the Police College and re-joins - during 2025. This will be the most ever achieved in a year.”