"New Zealand Police is achieving its recruitment growth targets" New Zealand Police Human Resources Manager, Mr Wayne Annan said today. "Contrary to some commentary appearing in the news, the numbers recruited this year speak for themselves" said Mr Annan.
In the past nine months New Zealand Police has recruited more staff than in any other full calendar year. Fifty-six new officers graduated from the Royal New Zealand Police College in September, and the total number of sworn staff is now 375 higher than the beginning of the year.
"The current Police numbers are higher than they have ever been before and the number of new recruits is well and truly above the number of those who are leaving with new recruits outnumbering those who have left by two and a half to one" said Mr Annan.
A full strength wing consisting of 80 recruits commenced training at the College on 25 September 2006 and over 50% are from Auckland and will be placed in Auckland districts upon graduation.
The recent intake of 80 recruits brings the total number of recruits for 2006 to 680 people and there is still one more wing to follow before the year is over - it is anticipated that this will bring the total number of recruits for 2006 to over 750.
The wing will enable New Zealand Police to continue to increase staff numbers in priority areas, including the Auckland area which has seen an increase of 250 sworn staff since 30 June 2001 with 2150 sworn staff working in the area.
Mr Annan believes that present New Zealand Police staff will benefit from having more hands on deck and the additional numbers will help to maintain the consistently low sworn staff member attrition rate which currently sits at 4.6%.
Media contact: James Whitaker 0272752612