Casey Costello: Associate Police Minister on the recruitment pipeline for the police and meeting the target

The timeframe for the 500 officer increase in policing numbers is shrinking.  

Police News magazine reports there are actually fewer cops in the country than when the target was set 14 months ago. 

Associate Police Minister Casey Costello says they've lost 150 through attrition, but they're expecting to put 650 recruits through in the first half of the year.  

She told Mike Hosking it won't just be new recruits who help bolster the numbers.  

Costello says more than 100 former officers have applied to rejoin the force. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Little bit of angst around the police targets the promise
five hundred new cops. We've still got nine months to go,
so while we're exercised, I don't know, but the claim
is from the unions that we've got fewer police officers
now then when the scheme was actually announced. The Police
Commissioner has already indicated that June twenty six looks like
a more achievable time frame for him. Associate Police Minister
Casey Costello was with us very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Is the claim true we have fewer police this morning
than we did when the scheme was announced.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we have our current numbers where it's there's we're
about one hundred and fifty less than we were for
We had three hundred recruits in college at the moment
and we're on track to put about six hundred and
fifty recruits through the first half of this year. So yeah,
we're really positive. This had to be a big shift.

(00:48):
There was a real drive that when we came in
there was no one went through and seeing Brown January.
When first came into government, we had no recruitment pipeline.
We now have our fantastic pipeline. Over double the number
of applications last year than we had the previous year.
So yeah, we're really positive about where we're going.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
So the six fifty you just gave us, that's the
five hundred, isn't it's the one fifty last plus five
So you will get there, you.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Say, yeah, we've got the We've got all now for
the attrition rate, so we're not taking the pressure off
where we're aiming to get to one hundred recruits in
each wing in the next couple of the next couple
of months, so that that will increase the flow. The
pressure's really gone on. But the upside is the quality
of the approach we're getting. The level of interest is

(01:34):
outstanding and really positive initiatives of Police of Dying. It's
a really great person campaign that will be starting announced
places today, which I'm really pleased about.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
So sorry, we've got a recruitment program announcing today.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
An advertising campaign, yeah, it's the commission will be launching
the video. It's really it's great. It's heartwarming stuff and
back to the old old days of what policing was
all about. The team that you're joining, the reason that
we do frontline policing, stuff, so really excited about it,
all all.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
That fun stuff like rounding up gangs and yeah, and the.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Frontline community stuff that really, you know, that's why I
joined that. That was what policing was about, you being
part of the community, that part of services thick. And
that's the quality of recruits every wing. I go out
to see the graduation. It's just heartwarming that the quality
of people we're getting through.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
It's the Police Commissioner write that it's more like June
twenty twenty six. So from the politics of it, you're
probably going to fail or can you sit here this
morning confidently say you will meet your target.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
We're really confident now that we've got the pipeline going
through and the positive stuff. So we also have last figures,
I was going to over one hundred former police officers
that are trying to rejoin. So all of those factors,
and you know, we're vulnerable to attrition rates and when
attrition there peaks and troughs and attrition September genially at

(03:02):
a time we have a high attrition rate. So all
of those things are moving targets, and that months by
month's tracking isn't really helpful because it's veries based.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Upon the here thing, Casey. I mean, you guys deal
with the numbers and all of that, But part of
it's the vibe, isn't it. Part of it's the sense
is crime coming down? Are we feeling safe in our
cities and streets? Are the police doing their job? And
I don't think you can argue that they're not. We're
on the better side of this now, aren't we?

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Exactly? Really positive stories, you know when I was had
in the podoke just recently, both early on the weekend,
you know, there's really positive energy and just outstanding, really
back to base, its frontline policing, and the vibe is
really positive, good stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
All right, nice to talk. Do you appreciate it? Casey Costello,
Associate policeman. It's the nine months ago. She's in charge
of the numbers. Hence we don't have Mitchell on the program.
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
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the podcast on ihrdred.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
You