‘He died holding my boots’: police tell tales of blood and trauma in push for better pay
Sunday, 17 May 2026
“He died holding onto my boots” begins the police officer’s account of his day-to-day life on the job.
The front line worker, who asked for anonymity, is one of many police officers recounting their stories to highlight the everyday violence and trauma of their work as they battle for better wages.
“His hands were slippery with blood as he begged me to help him,” the officer’s account continued.
“In those final seconds, there was no badge, no uniform, no politics. Just a human being terrified of dying, looking at me like I was his last chance.”
For the first time in its 90 years, the Police Association has launched a pay bargaining campaign, a push for a 5% pay bump for its members, in line with the increased cost of living.
The negotiations hit a roadblock last week when members learned their request had been met with a counter offer of 0.6% from Police.
Under New Zealand law, police officers can’t strike. So Police Association members have turned to other measures: a “Repay the Risk“ campaign, sending postcards to MPs and Parliament to hammer home the violence and trauma police officers face each day: work they say is not rewarded in their pay packet.
The Post has seen several accounts from police officers. They are graphic, recounting violence, death and trauma.
One, who later spoke with The Post under condition of anonymity, penned a short story.
It opened with an account of watching a man die, a stabbing victim who begged him for help. It went on to recount performing CPR on a suicide victim, while their family screamed; and describe how it felt to tell parents their child was dead.
After each incident, he had wiped his face in his car, and moved onto the next job.
The officer told The Post he was not special: just a “regular front line police officer” who joined up to help people.
“We're ordinary people who are expected to do extraordinary things at some points. Every cop will have those stories.”
He’d joined the police force just under a decade ago. In that short time, policing has become harder.
“The job itself is getting far worse, and the jobs we tend to are more frequent.”
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The officer had been assaulted countless times. One attack left him with a brain injury with ongoing effects.
While the hard parts of the job were what he signed up for, the officer’s pay packet did not reflect the risks he and his colleagues took each day, and the pay offer created feelings of “tension, and worthlessness” among front line workers, he said.
“If people wanted to pay us more, they would, but whoever is deciding these things chooses not to.
“If these people who make the decisions were in trouble and they needed the police to turn up, they’d want everybody to be there.”
The officer said he had no savings, and was living “paycheck to paycheck”.
“Nobody joins this job to become rich, but it would be nice to be able to take my family out to breakfast on a Sunday, but I can't even afford to do that.”
However, despite its challenges, he loves his job and plans to stick around.
“There's not been a day that I have regretted coming to work. Obviously, things happen, but I'm proud to wear the uniform.”
The offer
The Police Association had pushed for a 12-month collective agreement that included a general wage increase of at least 5%.
Instead, police had offered a general wage increase of 0.6%, with competency service increments (CSIs) bringing the offer up to 2%. Managers, of which there are around 900, would receive no pay rise.
Police Association president Steve Watt said he wasn’t surprised to hear one of his members was living between paychecks: he’d heard worse.
“It’s really tough out there… when our members are having to go to food banks and other social services in order to put food on the plate and just survive, that’s really tough given the nature of work that they do.
Some stations had set up “social supermarkets”: where staff that can afford it bring in food for others to collect.
The association represented over 10,000 police constabulary: 96% of all cops. Hundreds of these had posted or hand-delivered “heartfelt” postcards to their MPs during the campaign, Watt said.
“Just outlining those realities in a bid to show they are more than just a blue uniform.”
He found the stories hard to read.
“Policing's relentless, and takes a toll on not only their emotional and mental health, but their physical well-being as well.”
‘Absolutely furious’
Another account from a seasoned officer aimed their anger at the Government and Police leadership.
“I am absolutely furious,” the officer wrote.
“I have had to take life. I have saved life. I have been shot at. I have had firearms pointed at me more times than I can count.
“I have fought for my life alone with my dog, genuinely believing I might not make it home.”
The graphic account recounted watching people die bloody, violent deaths.
The officer described performing CPR on a baby girl, and then comforting the father when she was pronounced dead.
“I have done CPR on a dead teenager – twice – because the family needed to see someone fighting for them.“
The things he had seen would haunt him forever, he said.
“I try to keep these things from my family, from my kids, from my friends, but they see it. They see the old me versus the new me.”
He had joined the police because he believed in service.
“We are not asking for the world. We are asking for enough to put our kids through school without constant financial stress. We are asking for enough to buy groceries without sacrificing somewhere else.”
One in three resignations heading over Tasman
While the officer who spoke to The Post didn’t plan to leave the country, he’d had messages from former colleagues in Australia, urging him to make the move.
It was easy to see why: while a constable with five years’ experience earns up to $95,000 in New Zealand, in the Northern Territory packages can exceed NZ$160,000.
Last week, 1News reported that at least 144 New Zealand police officers have left for Australia over the past year, with almost one in three resignations citing a move over the Tasman.
The figures, which came from an Official Information Act request, showed that Australian police forces made 268 vetting requests for New Zealand officers between January 2025 and March 2026.
The biggest recruiters were Queensland and Northern Territory police forces. The latter has carried out recruitment drives, travelling Aotearoa in an attempt to entice Kiwi cops across the Tasman to boost their numbers.
New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers called the move “aggressive”, and said he’d attempted to intervene.
'I’ve told my police commissioner colleagues across Australia that I would rather they didn’t come to New Zealand and poach my people.“
But the tactic has worked: the OIA confirmed that 20 of the 22 Northern Territory recruits in its April graduating class were former New Zealand police officers.
While Chambers doesn’t like it, he acknowledged he could not compete with the salaries and incentives offered by Australian police forces.
Meanwhile, despite the coalition government’s pledge to deliver 500 new police officers during its first two years, New Zealand police attrition rates are growing.
According to a recent report from RNZ , there were 10,508 Constable FTEs, and 275 recruits that were undergoing training.
This was 297 extra cops since the change of government: well below the 500 target.
One officer’s account pinned the attrition directly linked to pay.
“It does not align with the risks undertaken, the irregular hours worked or the impact the role has on personal well being and family life.
“This is not only affecting morale, but it is affecting retention. Experienced officers are leaving, and attracting new staff is becoming more challenging – both of which have long-term implications for community safety.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told The Post he had a “deep respect for all our Police staff”.
“Their safety is constantly on my mind and motivates me to do as much as I can to support them as Minister of Police.”
However, bargaining negotiations were between the Police and the Association to work through, he said.
“I cannot comment on or get involved in that process. As with any negotiation, it’s important that both parties act in good faith.”
Chambers also declined to comment on the offer. He said through a spokesperson that due to the statutory process around formal negotiations, “by law, we are not permitted to comment further”.
Life-long scars
One officer recounted the scars left after an incident that happened the day before their birthday.
They’d attended a suicide: a young woman the same age as the officer.
Despite attending “countless” suicides and deaths since, it was this young woman’s death that continued to haunt the officer.
“I cut her down from where she was hanging, and every year I am reminded of the fact that that young woman is no longer with us, that my birthday is an anniversary.”
Another officer described how a decade in the force had changed them.
“I am hypervigilant. I see the worst in people before I see the good. My patience is shorter, my mind is constantly running, and it’s my family who carry the burden of that change.
“The public still gets the best of me because they have to, but when I walk through my front door, my tank is empty.”
They went on to say that the police attend every emergency incident imaginable.
“Car crash? Fire crews are there, but Police remain long after they’ve gone, dealing with the aftermath.
“Sudden death? Ambulance staff come and go, then it’s Police sitting with the body and the grieving family.'
These experiences do not leave you, the officer wrote.
“They follow you home. They sit with you at dinner. They wake you up at night.”
People often told police officers this is what they signed up for, they wrote.
“No one signs up to slowly lose pieces of themselves while being told they should simply be grateful to have the job.
“Police aren’t asking to be treated like heroes. We’re asking to be valued fairly for the work we do, the trauma we carry, and the sacrifices our families make alongside us.”
If conditions didn’t approve, experienced staff would continue to leave, they wrote.
“And then there won’t be anyone worthwhile left to answer the call.”