Richard Chambers: Police Commissioner on Police College in Auckland, Police 500 recruits target

The Police announced yesterday they will be opening a new training wing for recruits in Auckland. 

The current Royal New Zealand Police College is in Porirua, where recruits train for 20 weeks.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers talks to Mike Hosking about the need for the new location, what it will do for the target of 500 new police, if the Police are on track for that target, and flexibility it will give the recruits. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So police hoping a new training facility in Auckland. Currently, everyone,
of course, spends twenty weeks at the college in Pari Rue.
The Police Commissioner Richard Chambers with us on this good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
To you, Good morning the mine.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
I can't work out why they didn't do this years ago.
It makes perfect sense, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, well it does, Mike. I mean we have been
able to manage with the Porrieruh College, but you know,
we have got a huge, ambitious target of five hundred
by the end of the year and we're working really hard.
And what we realize with the Auckland facility is two
things really. The first thing is that there's a bunch
of people who want to join our organization. They want
to be police officers, and going to the college for

(00:35):
twenty weeks for a number of them is actually quite challenging.
And the other reason is we want to increase capacity
because right now we've got over three hundred troops at
the college in porri Ruh and we're full and that's fantastic.
So we want to create a bit of extra capacity.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
And so they'll be able to stay at home if
you're from Auckland and then go to the College EA today.
Is that how it works?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, that's the option we're giving them. You know, we
want the best to the best, so we don't want
to miss out on anyone who can't come to the
PROI or facility just because it's hard for them to
leave home for twenty weeks. We want them to give
them options. We want the best of the best, so
we're happy that they go home in the evenings be
with their stamilers. So long as they train, they pass

(01:17):
and they've come to the police officer.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
So I note over the weekend you're spreaking this, but
we seem to be in this angsty debate. You've still
got nine months to go or eight months or whatever
it is to get to your five hundred. Are we
getting a little tripped up on this? I mean, what
you're doing and how you do it surely is more
important than whether you get four ninety nine or five
oh one or you know, this has got politics written
all over it, hasn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, Mike, The thing is, it's an ambitious target to
have a five hundred extra police staff by the end
of November this year, but I'm confident we will get there.
We are working really really hard, and it's not just
about those that we're recruiting for the first time into
New Zealand. Pala. So I had the privilege just a
couple of weeks ago being in Australia, book a moment
to go and catch up with some of my former

(01:59):
colleagues who are over now, and was delighted when a
number of them said to me, actually, what you know what,
I want to come home. I missed my country, I
missed my home and on miss New Zealand Police. So
whether it's new recruits coming into our organization or you know,
former Muzeland police officers who want to come home, I'm
open to all opportunities to make sure we hit that

(02:20):
target body.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
This yeah good. Every time we talk about this, I
get a lot of texts on churn. Do you have
high churn? And if you do, what's the reason behind it?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Ye might look comparatively, Police has had a low attrition
rate sitting at the moment around five point five percent,
which is low, but we have had some spikes and
attrition over the years. You know. Obviously there was the
Australian Australians came over and took some of our people,
which I wasn't particularly happy about, but you know, they
want to come home. So we have had spikes such

(02:49):
as that. We also had a small gap where we
transition to twenty weeks training, so we slowed down. So
things go up and down, you know, on the market.
But at the moment, look, we in the sixth month
to the end of December last year we had out
the four thousand applications to join New Zealand Police. So
we're having we're you know, we're in a very positive

(03:10):
trajectory at the moment.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Good stuff. Good to hear Richard James, Police commission Ate.
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