1News can reveal that the Government’s target to deliver 500 new police officers has been moved out to September of next year.
The coalition initially committed to delivering the 500 new officers in two years, with the deadline for that being next week.
However, it has now conceded it won’t meet the target.
Today’s admission is the fourth time the target has been moved, with the dial moving from “early 2026” to May 2026, to August 2026 – and now September.
A briefing from Treasury to Finance Minister Nicola Willis said: “Police has been reluctant to specify a specific month when it expects the target to be achieved, but our analysis of the information provided by them suggests the target is likely to be reached in September 2026.”
The same point also said: “Police considers that it remains well-positioned to achieve the target by mid 2026.”
However, Treasury said even hitting the target by September 2026 would require “significant catch up”.
Police falling short of the target so far has also left spare money in the pot according to Treasury.
There was an underspend of just under $8 million dollars in Budget 2024/25.
Of that, $5.5 million dollars was moved to next years budget to keep pursuing the target while $2.3 million dollars was moved back into the police’s general budget.
Graduate numbers were expected to increase to be between 750-770 next year with 5.8% allocated for attrition.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said he wasn’t concerned about the target being extended again.
“It does not concern me at all because I’ve been really clear that our focus is on standards. We increased the training programme out at the college for our recruits from 16 weeks to 20 weeks.
“The good news is we’ve got people rejoining the police. We’ve got police officers coming back from Australia. We’ve got a really strong pipeline of people wanting to come in and join the police. And of course attrition is very like the moment as well. So we’re in a good position.”
Mitchell wouldn’t name a month when the target would be reached. “I was very clear with you when issues started to emerge around standards and integrity that we would be prioritising that,” he said. “I’ve been saying that now for at least 12 months. We’ve taken firm steps to make sure that we’re adhering to that.
“Standards matter in the police as we’ve all lived through in the last week.”
Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said it was unacceptable for the Government to not meet its own target.
“It’s been an absolute circus really. New Zealanders have been let down. The Government initially promised 27th of this month; that was next pushed out to June; then August; now September – and there’s real questions as to whether New Zealanders should trust anything the government says in this space.”
She said questions need to be asked about whether the target was realistic.
“I think there’s a fair question to Mark Mitchell why this date was set if they were unable to deliver upon it’s really concerning that this just puts additional pressure on the front line that are already stretched.”
