Police News April 05.indd - New Zealand Police Association

New Zealand Police AssociationApril 2005Australian and New Zealand comparisons ofpolice-to-population ratios• Figures for end of June 2004, taken from Police Annual Reports.No. of Ratio of No. of Ratio of Total No. Ratio ofCountry Sworn Sworn Non-sworn Non-sworn of Staff TotalNew Zealand 7,328 554 2,289 1774 9,737 417Australia 47,018 427 11,222 1792 58,240 345In order for one extra I-car (incident car)to be available around the clock (24/7) anextra 12 sworn police officers are requiredto meet shift/roster needs.I-car workloads are increasing. I-carstaff complete the follow-up on allincidents they have dealt with (exceptserious crime). This includes processingarrests, arranging assessment of thosewith psychiatric illnesses and all ongoingadministrative and court commitments.road policing staff have traditionallyattended traffic crashes, however, thisrole has now been added to the workloadof I-car staff to free up road policing forenforcement work.Frontline staff are being used as relieversfor other areas of policing but there is norelief in sight for their stretched sections.Putting a new police officer on the streetis estimated to cost $100,000. So 540extra staff would only cost $54 millionand allow for one extra I-car for each ofthe country’s 45 policing areas.Police expenditure currently represents1.656% of total Government revenue.International comparisons of police-to-population ratiosCountry Ratio 2003 Police Officers 2003 Population 2003New Zealand* 554 7,328 4,060,900Canada 531 59,494 31,629,700Australia* 427 47,018 20,111,300USA 438 663,796 290,809,777England & Wales 393 133,366 52,480,000Scotland 323 15,617 5,054,800France 255 233,250 59,625,919540 extra Police would only increase thatto 1.741% of total Government revenue.What happens tounattended calls?The Police Association understandsthat in excess of 50,000 calls forservice from the public go unattendedin any one year in the NorthernCommunications area alone. Units arenot dispatched because units are notavailable to respond at the time. Sowhat happens to these jobs and how doesthe public feel when no one turns up?Police Association President, GregO’Connor, says the Police crimestatistics, while a reflection of thededication of police staff in catchingcriminals, could be immeasurably betterif police resources were not ring-fenced.“In recent years we have seengovernment deciding where Policeresources are placed and often that hasbeen at the expense of the frontline,”Mr O’Connor told Police News.When the Government has respondedin the past with extra officers theyhad been ringfenced to work indesignated areas, rather than giving theCommissioner of Police the flexibilityhe needed to put them into muchneededfrontline policing, Mr O’Connorsaid.Mr O’Connor said that the Associationwas keen to see the successes gainedfrom targeting so much resource atRoad Policing adopted “across theboard but especially into frontlinepolicing”.“The crime stats tell us that wherePolice resources were concentrated onreducing crime, it worked,” he said.Numbers do work“Numbers do work. We’ve seen it inareas like Counties-Manukau andAuckland where a substantial injectionof frontline staff in the past has returned11.3% and 11.9% reductions in totalcrime respectively. Imagine what couldbe achieved in every town and city inNew Zealand if that frontline resourcewas increased across the board to bringNew Zealand’s police-to-populationratio in line with other Westerncountries” he said.Over the last two years, from February2003 to February 2005, total policestaff numbers (fulltime employeesavailable for duty) have increasedby 4% while over the correspondingperiod Wellington’s core public servicestaff has increased by 16%.*New Zealand and Australia are 2004 figures. Other figures supplied by The Home Office.55