Darroch Ball

Spokesperson for Police

13 December 2018

New Zealand First is proud that today’s graduation at the Royal New Zealand Police College brings the number of police officers who have completed training during this term of Government to more than 1000.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters joined Police Minister Stuart Nash at the graduation of Wing 321.

“As Coalition partners, New Zealand First and Labour agreed to strive to achieve 1800 additional police officers over three years. Even allowing for workforce attrition, we have almost 500 more officers on the street than last year,” Mr Ball says. “That is a great achievement in a short space of time.”

New Zealand First has a long history of working to increase police numbers. In the 1996 coalition with National we wanted to increase numbers by 500, and in the 2005 Confidence and Supply Agreement with Labour we strived to achieve an extra 1000.

“This Government is committed to tackling organised crime, diminishing the drugs trade, and making communities safer. In order to achieve this, we must not only increase the number of officers, but adequately resource them too,” Mr Ball says.

Latest Police figures show we are making inroads. In the year to October 2018, 9353 fewer people were victims of crime, a fall of 3.5 percent on the previous 12 months.

The positive impact of the increased police presence is being felt around the country, but especially in regions where resources were particularly stretched.

“This is great news for both the police and the communities they work tirelessly to protect.”

ENDS

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