Ryan Bridge: We need 500 excellent cops, not average ones

So it looks like looks like police will miss the deadline of adding 500 extra sworn officers by 2026.

What we were promised should take two years. Now the new Police Commissioner, when fronting scrutiny week in parliament, he said it will take 2.5 years. 

So an extra six months - will anyone really care? Probably not.

Should we care? 

When there are more bad guys out there doing bad things, we should always care about how many good guys and girls we have out there countering that. 

But on this particular point of missing a target by 180 odd days, not really.

Why? One - the target was always described as highly ambitious and that should be a clue from a politician. 

Two - they may still make the deadline. That has not been discounted at this point and they are working hard to do that. 

Three - it was only a target because it was included in the coalition agreement with New Zealand First. 

And clearly, if you follow the public comments of Mark Mitchell through the past year, even National has been sceptical about the timing of it. 

Most importantly, not hitting 500 by November next year doesn't mean that we'll have zero extra cops on the beat by that date. It means we'll probably have a few hundred extra with more coming in mid 2026. 

The most reassuring thing about this whole debacle were the words from the new Commissioner Richard Chambers who said we are not going to compromise. 

So if it takes us a little bit of time to produce the best quality offices, then we'll take that. 

And he's right, because we need 500 good cops. 500 great cops. 500 excellent cops, well trained and well resourced. 

Not 500 average cops. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So it looks like looks like police will miss the
deadline of adding five hundred extra sworn officers. What we
were promised should take two years will now in fact
more likely, according to the top brass scrutiny week in
Parliament this week, take two and a half years. So
an extra six months. Will anyone really care? Probably not.
Should we care? Well, when there are more bad guys

(00:23):
out there doing bad things, we should always care about
how many good guys and girls we have out there
encountering that. But on this particular point of missing a
target by one hundred and eighty odd days, not really why.
One the target was always described as highly ambitious and
that should be a clue from a politician. Two they
may still make the deadline. I mean that has not

(00:44):
been discounted at this point and they are working hard
to do that. Three, it was only a target because
it was included in a coalition agreement with New Zealand. First,
and clearly, if you follow the public comments of Mark
Mitchell through the past year, even National has been skeptical
about the timing of it. And most importantly, not hitting
five hundred by November next year doesn't mean that we'll

(01:06):
have zero extra cops on the beat by that date.
It means we'll probably have a few hundred extra, with
more coming in mid twenty twenty six. The most reassuring
thing about this whole debarcle were the words from the
new Commissioner, Richard Chambers yesterday, who said, we are not
going to compromise. So if it takes us a little
bit of time to produce the best quality officers, then

(01:30):
we'll take that, and is right, of course, of course
he's right, because we need five hundred good cops, five
hundred great cops, five hundred excellent cops, well trained and
well resourced, not five hundred average cops. For more from
early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks
it Be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast

(01:53):
on iHeartRadio