Borrows Chester: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Borrows Chester: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:640;Page:10419] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 It is interesting to look back from the last election to the present day at the current state of policing and at some of the issues that have arisen in this portfolio given the promises that were made prior to that election. We know that prior to the last election for instance the National Party said: “We need to have a radical increase in police numbers. We think it will be about 1000 but we will do it in consultation with the police administration.” Labour said: “Rubbish!”. New Zealand First said: “We think we need to take police numbers up by about half.” so New Zealand First was going to have another 3500 police members. Labour said that was rubbish. In fact the Prime Minister said that anyone who was talking about lifting police numbers in the thousands was incredible. She reckoned those people were not even on the right planet. 
The problem with that little assessment of course was that the public of New Zealand agreed that the police numbers needed to go up. In spite of all the assurances that have been given and in spite of the assurances on pledge card after pledge card that youth crime would be dealt with and that burglaries would be dealt with the fact is that that was not done. 
So what happened when the issue gained some traction with the public? Well Labour decided it would contribute 250 community cops. It did not do any assessment on that; it just sort of plucked that number out of the air and said it would contribute 250 community cops. There was no consultation. Then what happened? Well in the words of Dr Cullen I guess they won we lost eat that. 
But Labour needed a coalition partner so it went along to New Zealand First and was pleased to speak to my colleague Ron Mark and New Zealand First went into bat. Without any consultation Labour again came back to the public and said: “We’ll give you 1000 more cops. That’s it the coalition deal is signed and we’re up and running as a Government.” The problem was of course that Labour never consulted the police administration as to how long it would take to get the recruits how that would affect standards what the flow-on effects would be for justice and the courts and all the rest of it. That was all there was to it—1000 new cops. 
Well what has happened since then? What has happened is that these 1000 new cops were all going to be front-line cops. Initially New Zealand First said they would all be front-line cops and Labour said that it did not know about that and that there would be support staff and all the rest of it. Eventually Labour got its act together and said there would be 1000 new front-line cops. 
In response to question for written answer No. 8496 to the Minister of Police we found out that of the first tranche of these 1000 new cops—there were 353 of them—only a third would actually be front-line cops. One-third of them are recorded as being front-line general duties responders. Others are road police some are Criminal Investigation Bureau and support staff some are specialists some are recruiters some are analysts some are prosecutors some are working with Child Youth and Family and 27 are “other” so they are not even described at all. What they are not is front-line cops. 
I wonder whether that is what Mr Mark actually thought he was getting when that deal was negotiated. But we cannot find any answers to the questions asked about correspondence between New Zealand First and the Minister of Police as to where these front-line cops were coming to and where they were going. We asked: “Has there been any consultation between New Zealand First and the Minister?”. We got back the answer: “None.” 
In recent days and weeks there has been a question over the quality of the recruits that are being brought into the Royal New Zealand Police College to make up these 1000 police. I have to say that it really hacks me off that as soon as one even raises the question one is seen as defecating on the New Zealand Police. Well I can tell members from experience that the New Zealand Police are tough enough to handle it and it is interesting to note that the New Zealand Police are getting more concerned than certainly the Minister and anybody else. 
Wayne Annan who is the head of human resources in the New Zealand Police says that the new recruits are fine and that some comparative testing has been done between current recruits at the police college recruits who are yet to arrive at the police college and cops who are already serving and everything is fine. Well that study was reviewed by Senior Sergeant Iain Saunders who seems to have been on a commissioned officers’ course at the police college. He found that there were a whole lot of problems with that. He found that the norm groups fluctuated and in one statement he said: “We don’t even seem to know what we are measuring and predicting about the person or in the job and we are just taking the best guess at present.” Well that is flash!