Changes are due to flow into the New Zealand Police College structure after months of record-breaking applications for new officers, police say.
Recruitment campaigns and changes to application criteria have been hailed as some of the reasons for the influx of prospective officers.
New Zealand Police Assistant Commissioner leadership, talent and development Jill Rodgers said in a statement there had been 1371 applications in July — police’s most successful month since the national recruitment database was created in 2014.
August was the second-highest month on record, attracting 1037 applicants.
"With an average of 526 applications each month in the first six months of 2024, compared with 334 applications each month in the first six months of 2023, we know we are heading in the right direction," she said.
"All together, when including our major spike in applications, by the end of August, [we have] received more than 5500 applications in 2024."
The figure was more than double the amount of applications police received in 2023.
To accommodate the influx, police were increasing the size of their training wings to accommodate 100 recruits next year.
"Our maximum wing size is usually 80, but we don’t want a blockage at the end of our pipeline for people waiting for a wing," Asst Comm Rodgers said.
"A model that enables larger wings will also support us to deliver on the government’s commitment of 500 additional officers.
"This will mean some changes for other courses at [the college], but we are working through options to deliver them within districts or online."
The number of people leaving the force was on a downward trend, August having a attrition rate of 4.8%
To put police’s attrition rate in context, in 2023 police reported that turnover across public sector departments ranged from 11% to 54% with an average of 20%, she said.
She said about 115 officers had moved across the Ditch since January.
"With more than 10,000 constabulary employees some movement is always expected, but our monitoring suggests there aren’t significant numbers of staff heading overseas.
"This is based on us receiving a vetting request from an Australian police jurisdiction for a staff member who then subsequently resigns within the next 12 months."
She wanted to acknowledge everyone in the police for their hard work, which would benefit both current and future police, and the wider community, Asst Comm Rodgers said.
