The police commissioner says he is hearing from former Kiwi cops who relocated to Australia who want to come back - but he would not say exactly how many, and admitted the pay across the ditch is better.
Richard Chambers made the comments at the opening of a new police college campus in Auckland, alongside Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Associate Police Minister Casey Costello.
The campus opening comes after controversy over training and admission standards, amid a government commitment to recruit 500 more police officers by November.
An audit into recruitment standards at the Royal New Zealand Police College found a significant number of applicants were allowed into the college, despite failing preliminary tests. And a review revealed than 300 police officers were not assessed on their swimming abilities before graduating.
At new facility, leased from Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University, Chambers said he could not remember a time when there were more than 350 recruits going through training, after 60 more began on Monday in Porirua and 40 on Tuesday in Auckland.
"Over the 20 weeks, 15 of those weeks will be spent here in the Albany campus. Five weeks, they will travel down to Porirua… and then they will return here to finish, in 20 weeks' time."
The new Auckland-based training facility was announced in June, Chambers at the time saying many potential recruits were put off joining the force by having to spend five months away from home.
"Since December 2023 over 980 new police officers have graduated. That is a massive number, and I do want to acknowledge my staff in recruiting and the selection processes that have enabled those 980 new police officers to get underway with their careers.
"Of course through that same period staff attrit, and we have had a little over 900 staff leave police for whatever reason that may be."
Chambers said only one out of every 10 people who express an interest in joining the police actually make it through the recruitment process.
"People change their mind, but also along the way, we do have, you know, processes in place that shine the spotlight on those who are keen to join New Zealand police in terms of whether or not they're suitable… do whilst we have a healthy pipeline, we continue to work hard to grow that pipeline because 10 percent really only make it to either Porirua or now here at Massey."
Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Associate Police Minister Casey Costello at the opening of the new police college campus in Auckland. Photo: Calvin Samuel / RNZ
A difficulty in retaining the existing force, Chambers acknowledged, was pay. Asked about his comments earlier this year that some of his former colleagues now based in Australia had expressed interest in resuming their careers at home, he said that remained the case.
"There's still lots of my former colleagues who have elected to go across to Australia and, you know, get underway in law enforcement over there. There's still a number of them reaching out to me wanting to come home, which is pretty good actually."
But he would not say how many.
"I can't put a number on it. I know they don't all reach out just to me personally, they do reach out to others.
"But at the moment, we have over 100 wanting to rejoin and, and quite a healthy cohort of that 100 are people who have left New Zealand police to head offshore, looking to come back. But I can't give you an exact number today…
"New Zealand Police is not perfect and New Zealand's not perfect, but actually, when you step outside of your own country and your own organisation, you go and see what law enforcement might look like in another part of the world, you actually reflect and realise how lucky we are in New Zealand and New Zealand Police."
He credited the force's technology, camaraderie, values and priorities as contributing to that potential influx from offshore.
"There's all sorts of reasons, but I'm pretty proud to have a lot of colleagues reaching out to me saying, 'Actually, you know what, we miss New Zealand and we miss New Zealand Police and we want to come home.'"
Asked directly about remuneration, Chambers said that was a "challenge".
"We can't compete with the Australian jurisdictions, let's be frank about that. But, you know, when police people do shift to somewhere else, Australia, they soon realise that, you know, money is certainly very important - but it's not everything."
The new facility in Auckland included multiple classrooms, a locker room, storage space, offices, car parks and dorm rooms, as well as access to other facilities - including a gym and recreation centre.
Neither he nor Mitchell would comment on the costs of the new training base, calling it commercially sensitive and a contractual arrangement between police and the university.
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