Friday, 3 February 2017 - 11:35am -
Commissioner Mike Bush

Extra Police staff

2 min read

Ngā mihi. I welcome the announcement of an additional 1125 Police staff including 880 extra police officers. We’ll be deploying these extra officers across all of our 12 Police Districts and we’re working through how they’ll be allocated to make the most difference to your community.

The additional staff will allow us to meet increased and new demands for our services, as well as boost support for victims, crime prevention and efforts to hold offenders to account.

The new resourcing comes with new targets for us in areas such as attending home burglaries and reducing deaths from family violence. You can see a snapshot of the full announcement here and we’ll provide updates on the allocation of the new staff as details are finalised.

In the meantime, if you’d like to help us make NZ the safest country visit www.newcops.co.nz.

Tackling Drugs And Organised Crime

Our efforts to disrupt the drug trade and the organised crime groups that run it continue to bear fruit, with the latest success the culmination of a five-month operation in Hawke’s Bay this week.

This saw the seizure of $35,000 in cash as well as drugs including methamphetamine, LSD and a large amount of cannabis. A firearm was also seized and two properties have been restrained.

We’re determined to reduce the damage drugs do to our communities. As well as the harm done to those who have addiction problems, we want to prevent and reduce associated crime such as burglaries and theft, so it was great to hear that the operation received assistance from members of the public who also care deeply about the safety and wellbeing of their communities.

Well done to Detective Inspector Mike Foster and the rest of the Operation Kevlar team.

Marking Our National Day

Monday is Waitangi Day and as usual our staff will be hard at work to keep everyone safe, no matter how they choose to spend our national day.

I’m in Waitangi today and look forward to meeting staff involved in the operation there. My thanks in advance to all staff who’ll be working on Monday, wherever you’re based.

On that note, this week saw the marking of Chinese New Year, which is an important date for New Zealand’s large and growing Chinese community.

I had the pleasure of hosting an event to mark the occasion at Police National Headquarters on Wednesday, along with Chinese Ambassador His Excellency Mr Wang Lutong, his wife Madam Yang Pengbo, Minister for Ethnic Communities the Honourable Judith Collins, and many others.

To those of you celebrating the year of the Fire Rooster - Kia ora, Ni Hao and Xing Nian Kuai Le!

Until next time, stay safe and keep up the great work.


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