Police Commissioner Peter Marshall was "shocked'' when told of Labour leader Phil Goff''s claim last night that the force have frozen recruiting for all of next year as a result of Government pressure to cut costs, National's law and order spokesperson Judith Collins says.
Mr Goff raised the issue at last night's TVNZ leaders' debate with Prime Minister John Key, the last debate before the election.
During the law and order segment, Mr Goff said he had been told that the Government was deferring police recruiting for all of next year.
"But that announcement won't be made till after the election," Mr Goff said.
Mr Key dismissed the claim as fiction but, when pressed, said it was a police operational matter. "We expect every government department to work hard to save money."
Mr Goff was this morning standing by his claim as he chatted with supporters while campaigning in Christchurch, saying he had "an excellent source that's always been reliable in the past''.
"I've heard from another source that there will be no intake in February and that the discussion is actually around not having any intakes this year as a budget-saving measure.''
Mr Goff this morning told Radio New Zealand he could not reveal the source of the information.
However, while Mr Marshall was refusing interviews, Mrs Collins this morning said she'd spoken to him last night after hearing Mr Goff's claims to ask him if it was true.
"He said certainly not and was as shocked as I was.''
"What he has said to me is because the attrition rate or number of people leaving the police now is so low, around 3.2 per cent, he can defer the recruitment wing from January to March and that is a normal thing for police to do from time to time.''
The frequency and timing of intakes was "entirely up to the commissioner'' she said.
"We are not planning to increase the number of police but we're certainly not planning to decrease them either.''
Police Association president Greg O'Connor told Newstalk ZB this morning he had been told no details, but said there had been rumours recruitment would be deferred.
"If that happens it will be a disaster. It happened 11 years ago and essentially, it took police about five years to recover," he said.
"It would be a real shame because police have made some gains at the moment, we're probably in the best place, certainly since I've been in the police, that we've been at. But it's pretty fragile and we'll lose them pretty quickly if we don't have the numbers.
Mr O'Connor said 80 per cent of the police budget is staffing, so recruitment is an obvious place to cut costs.
Mrs Collins said the last of the extra 600 frontline police promised by National have now completed their training.
"National is making good progress in making New Zealand a safer place. I appreciate Phil Goff is feeling desperate, but there's no need to go around making stuff up."
Labour says 260 of those new frontline police were funded under its last Budget in government.
- The New Zealand Herald
