29 March 2022
Ref: IR-01-22-3949
Chuck Schooner
[FYI request #18543 email]
Dear Chuck
Request for information
Thank you for your email of 11 February 2022 requesting information about the
‘increasing number of police officers.’ Your request has been considered pursuant to the
Official Information Act 1982 (OIA).
Each of your questions, including additional questions emailed from you on
17 February 2022 are answered below.
1. Total police numbers dated 31/12/2019 broken down into areas.
Please refer to Appendix A (attached) for the ful time equivalent (FTE) staff counts, by
district as at 31 December 2019, 31 December 2020, 31 December 2021 and 15
February 2022, together with the net losses and gains between the periods. Note that
Police is organised at District level rather than areas.
2. How many police staff the government had intended to have/forecast police
numbers dated 31/12/2020 broken down into areas?
Police set targets at a District level, which enables District leadership teams to best match
the Police requirements of their Districts. Furthermore, targets are set at the end of each
financial year, i.e., 30 June, rather than 31 December.
The table below includes Police’s target levels for Constabulary employees from 2020 to
2022.
Table 1: Police target levels for constabulary employees 2020 to 2022
30/06/2020
30/06/2021
30/06/2022
Northland
397
419
421
Waitemata
834
855
867
Auckland City
835
858
868
Counties/Manukau
1,131
1,156
1,171
Waikato
686
720
726
Bay Of Plenty
734
763
775
Central
731
754
765
Eastern
484
513
528
Wel ington
807
830
842
Tasman
339
350
360
Canterbury
914
941
957
Southern
582
599
615
Service Centres
1,380
1,456
1,569
Total
9,853
10,213
10,463
Police National Headquarters 180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Telephone: 04 474 9499. Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz
3. Actual police numbers dated 31/12/2020.
Please refer to Appendix A.
4. How many police staff the government had intended to have/forecast police
numbers dated 31/12/2021?
Please refer to Table 1 (above).
5. Actual police numbers dated 31/12/2021.
6. Actual police numbers at today’s date.
7. Please provide net losses/gains of officers each year.
Please refer to Appendix A.
8. Please provide total resignations 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date.
Please refer to Appendix B (attached) which shows the monthly resignations for the
calendar years 2019 to 2021 and up to 15 February 2022.
9. Please provide total officers fired due to mandates.
None.
10. If vaccine mandates were ended how many officers could be reinstated
tomorrow to assist with police numbers?
Police are unable to speculate on how many staff may look to re-join Police should the
requirement regarding vaccination mandates end.
11. If vaccine mandates ended how many cops that resigned would be keen to re-
join – i.e., how many cops have resigned out of principle because of government
actions?
Please refer to the answer provided for question 10.
12. Are the police wholly funded by the taxpayer?
Police is a Government Department and is largely funded by Crown. The Annual Report,
which is publicly available, details al the funding sources for Police.
13. Have any of the police had their salaries reduced or taken away from them the
last two years? Yes or No.
Reductions to Police salaries may occur for a number of reasons, for example, police
staff may take one of multiple forms of unpaid leave, be stood down without pay, or
change role after a mutually agreed negotiation. Al of these situations have occurred in
the past two years.
14. Please provide any and all reporting of the safety/efficacy/risk assessment of
individual cops wearing masks whilst driving their cars and the protection it
provides them against Covid. Example what risk does a solo officer present to
himself in a car by himself? Could he catch Covid from himself?
Masks worn by Police officers reduce the risk of being infected by COVID-19 and of
transmitting it to others. Wearing the mask while in a vehicle wil reduce the spread of
COVID-19 between different users of the vehicle over different shifts. Mask wearing
while on duty means that an officer wil be always ready to interact with others without
increasing the risk of infection to either person.
15. Would the addition of 200 experienced officers help with police resourcing - Yes
or No.
There are times when an additional 200 experienced officers would help with police
resourcing. Our target of 1,800 additional police officers by June 2023 is aligned with this
view. In terms of experience, Police has recently launched its “Re-join” initiative as a
pathway for former officers who wish to consider returning to Police.
16. As more and more footage emerges of police tactics and brutality including
against children at these protests the credibility and trust the public wil have in
the police wil forever be tarnished. You could in one action restore police
credibility, confirm police work on behalf of the taxpayers that fund them, be the
ace that restored freedom to mil ions of kiwis, have the police force back to
adequate resourcing, stop police looking like idiots wearing a mask driving by
themselves, ensure there won’t be further violence against protesters making the
public and your officers safe.
Your question appears to ask Police to form an opinion regarding pubic opinion of Police,
and would therefore require the creation of new information. As such, your request does
not constitute 'official information', and is not subject to the OIA. Therefore, this part of
your request is refused under s18(g) of the OIA, as the information is not held and Police
has no reason to believe it is held by another agency.
17. How many officers would have not taken the vaccine given it was either the jab
or their career? If this information is not available then can the NZ Police col ate
this information via survey and make it available.
This information has not been collected by Police. The OIA only applies to information
that is already held by an agency. There is no obligation to create information in order to
respond to a request. I am therefore refusing this portion of your request under section
18(g) of the OIA as Police does not hold this information.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision if you are not satisfied
with the response to your request. Information about how to make a complaint is
available at: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Yours sincerely
Christine Parker
Executive Director: People Operations
Appendix A, FTE counts and changes.
Please note that the employees working part-time are summed to an equivalent of full–time
employees (for example, two employees working 0.6 and 0.4 FTE would
be a headcount of two but 1.0 FTE). These numbers include Authorised Officers and Temporary
Sworn staff but do not include any employee on leave without pay
or parental leave.
District
Question
Question
Question
Question
Net
Net
Net
1:
3:
5:
6:
Loss/Gain 31/12/2019-
Loss/Gain
Loss/Gain
31/12/2019 31/12/2020 31/12/2021 15/02/2022 31/12/2020
31/12/2020-
31/12/2021-
31/12/2021
15/02/2022
Auckland City
822.39
864.71
822.90
808.88
42.32
-41.81
-14.03
Bay of Plenty
742.82
762.57
767.42
766.91
19.76
4.84
-0.50
Canterbury
944.88
957.49
961.19
966.35
12.61
3.70
5.16
Central
753.29
771.67
739.25
730.95
18.38
-32.42
-8.29
Counties
Manukau
1,134.91
1,215.96
1,232.82
1,240.26
81.05
16.86
7.44
Eastern
485.38
504.36
502.84
506.46
18.98
-1.52
3.62
Northland
396.57
415.46
423.13
429.51
18.89
7.67
6.38
Southern
588.46
603.13
596.86
592.93
14.67
-6.28
-3.92
Tasman
335.66
345.45
354.74
353.96
9.79
9.29
-0.77
Waikato
714.89
725.56
717.65
707.65
10.67
-7.92
-10.00
Waitemata
811.05
842.52
830.25
823.95
31.47
-12.26
-6.30
Wellington
845.88
840.67
820.77
824.88
-5.20
-19.90
4.11
PNHQ/Service
Centre
1,298.73
1,364.44
1,384.38
1,386.75
65.71
19.94
2.38
TOTAL
Constabulary
9,874.91 10,213.99 10,154.18 10,139.45
339.08
-59.81
-14.74
Appendix B: Monthly resignations between 2019 and 15 February 2022.
Resignations by FTE
Years
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Grand
Total
2019
23.95
13.80
34.55
22.28
18.69
14.90
19.08
33.50
19.00
23.80
19.60
24.00
267.14
2020
13.75
23.56
19.60
6.00
11.80
14.98
15.60
10.00
14.00
16.53
10.80
18.98
175.60
2021
18.50
8.70
16.80
23.50
28.16
40.00
28.69
21.93
19.00
18.00
23.15
36.60
283.03
2022
48.89
24.90
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
73.79
Grand Total
105.09
70.97
70.95
51.78
58.65
69.88
63.36
65.43
52.00
58.33
53.55
79.58
799.55
Resignations by Headcount
Years
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Grand
Total
2019
31
21
49
40
42
27
30
42
27
35
31
35
410
2020
27
35
29
23
26
34
29
16
20
29
20
37
325
2021
27
21
23
44
40
53
42
33
32
24
32
41
412
2022
59
34
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
93
Grand Total
144
111
101
107
108
114
101
91
79
88
83
113
1240
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