Police Applicants Who Failed Physical Test Still Admitted For Training

Monday, 28 April 2025, 7:00 pm
Article: RNZ

Russell Palmer, Political Reporter

Police are investigating after three applicants who failed physical testing were still admitted for training.

In a statement, assistant commissioner Tusha Penny said it was a clear breach of recruitment policy.

"Police recently became aware of three instances where applicants were approved to begin training at the Royal New Zealand Police College (RNZPC) without having met the full requirements for the Physical Appraisal Test (PAT).

"Our process does not allow for exemptions to the PAT, and this is a clear breach of the recruitment policy. Recruitment leaders have been reminded by email that there are no circumstances where discretion can be provided for applicants who do not pass the PAT."

She said police had begun an audit into whether further breaches of the recruitment process had occurred, covering a six-month period.

The investigation would check whether the application process for recruits to the police college had deviated from the required standards, and the findings would be reported publicly.

Pressure is growing as the November deadline for the government's promise to recruit 500 additional frontline officers nears, but Penny said Commissioner Richard Chambers had been "very clear publicly and internally that recruitment standards will not be compromised".

"We have previously acknowledged the target of 500 additional officers by 27 November 2025 is ambitious, but we know this is a great opportunity and we are working hard to achieve the target," she said.

"Police is looking into these matters and conducting an audit to establish if there have been any further breaches of the recruitment process."

Police bosses in December told ministers it would be "very very challenging" to meet the two-year target, noting at the time total office numbers had decreased by more than 50.

Police confirmed to RNZ that as of 21 April they were still 475 officers short of the target, noting that did not include the 334 recruits still at Police College.

'All recruits should be good to go'

Police Association vice president Paul Ormerod said it was pleasing to hear the Commissioner had ordered an audit.

"We wouldn't want to see any softening continuing in being a recruit for college, and any failures of college need to be addressed at college and not put on to districts. All recruits should be good to go when released to district.

"Hopefully this is the case, but we are seeing some fall through the cracks that need extra guidance after they have finished Police College."

He said they particularly did not want to see further softening of other police college requirements, like psychometric testing "and that stand down period - if they get that psychometric testing wrong, they have a six month stand down - so that's another aspect of recruiting procedures that we'd like ensure is continued".

He said as of last month officer numbers were only up by six compared to the 2023 benchmark, and the government should focus on improving pay and conditions if it wanted to meet its target.

"We'd be naive to think that there isn't some kind of political interference. What I'd like to see personally, instead of so much effort put into new staff, pay officers more, improve the conditions that they already have, and retain the staff that we have. That'll go a long way ... if we don't have so many leaving.

"I'm sure the Commissioner has had a number of talks with the minister in regarding how they're going to achieve it, but police and government need to invest in their current staff and retain the valuable knowledge that they have instead of recruiting and training for the Australian police forces."

Ministers respond

Associate Minister Casey Costello, who has the delegated responsibility for the target, said decisions on recruitment and training were an operational matter for the organisation.

"How police recruit and train new constables is an operational issue. Ministers have no involvement in this," she said. "What the government has done is made a commitment to recruit an extra 500 frontline officers and we have backed police to do this with $225 million in extra funding.

"As ex-police officers, Minister Mitchell and I are well aware of the very high standards of NZ Police and it's very important that those are maintained."

Police Minister Mark Mitchell told Midday Report police had taken "immediate steps" to remedy the problem, and he backed the Commissioner's support for maintaining training standards.

He said the decision-making would have been "very operational, it'll be out at district levels," and ruled out there having been any political pressure involved, challenging Labour to come up with evidence of that.

"As a past police officer, I understand and I guard that operational independence strongly, and neither myself or my Associate Minister Casey Costello would ever be involved with instructing police on how to carry out recruitment, what the standards should be, or how they should be going about that.

"That is purely operational for police. We have been very clear as an incoming government and as part of our coalition agreement with New Zealand First that we will fund 500 more police officers, and we've set a target for the police in which to do that. That is as far as we can go as a government."

In an earlier statement, he also said meeting that commitment was an operational matter for police.

"There has been no political interference with police and its recruiting programme. The coalition government set the police a recruitment target and the funding to increase police numbers by 500. The delivery of that is an operational matter for police," he said.

He said he and Costello had been clear "that standards were not to be dropped".

"Under the previous Labour government police recruiting standards were relaxed for example by dropping the required swim standard and dropping standards around low-level offending.

"In contrast, Minister Costello and I have unequivocally supported the Police Commissioner's public commitment to the maintenance of standards and expect the police to maintain these standards."

He made that accusation again "when the police dropped the swimming standard" again.

"Now, I'm not saying that wasn't the right thing to do but I'm highlighting the fact that the dropping of those standards happened under a previous government.

"Under this government not only have we returned the recruit courses from 16 to 20 weeks, we've been very clear that we do not want standards dropped, there will not be any compromise on that."

He pushed back when host Charlotte Cook pointed out the government had allowed applicants on their restricted licence to join the Police College on the understanding they would have their full licence by the time they got there.

"Again, those are operational decisions for the police, and that's why those decisions were taken. It's not for us to interfere or meddle in those," he said.

Minister 'trying to excuse his own behaviour' - Labour

Labour's police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said the decision to override recruiting policy would typically be made by someone in the police executive and despite the minister's claims of no interference, questions still needed to be answered.

"We need to understand why, then, did police - and who in police - made the decision for the rules to be bent in order to allow recruits through that hadn't qualified properly. It seems highly unlikely that police would do this of their own accord," she said.

"It not only compromises public safety, but it also compromises the safety of those officers on the front line right now who rely on recruits being able to have all the skills necessary to be a police officer."

She said the lowering of swimming requirements when Labour was in government was as a result of a review by police into what training was needed - an operational decision.

"Changes to standards for police recruits do happen over time, and that's in order to better reflect what is needed of an officer on the frontline, but what has happened here is recruits have entered training having not met the current requirements and police are worried enough to do an audit of that.

"It seems like he's trying to excuse his own behavior ... it does seem odd that he's bringing things up from years ago when the pressing issue right now is that police recruits have been able to proceed through training without without completing required physical assessment tests."

The minister should be held responsible for what was a political promise, she said.

"It is completely unfair for New Zealand police to be held accountable for a political promise that they have always said was unattainable by the 27th of November this year.

"The political deal making done by this government is now calling into question the reputation of New Zealand police, and that is not fair on the hard working and excellent police service we have.

She said the six-month investigation should be expanded to cover the whole two years police had been recruiting to try to meet the target.

"I think it would be better for the public's confidence for the whole period to be reviewed, six months doesn't cover the entire time that police have been trying to get the 500 extra and as we've seen that political pressure build on the government, there clearly has been something happened for standards to change."

However, Ormerod said the time period would cover all those still at Police College, and "everyone else should have passed and is out on the street and in district, so I think the timing is fair".

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