Govt concedes it'll likely miss November target for 500 new police

Police Minister Mark Mitchell says the Government will "without a doubt" meet its goal of hiring 500 new police officers — but only during its current term in office.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said New Zealanders wouldn't care about the delay in delivering on the Government's promise.

Under the National-NZ First coalition agreement, the Government set a target of recruiting an extra 500 officers within its first two years in office.

Peters today told media at Parliament: “We’ll get there. But sometimes we overperform, and sometimes it takes a bit longer."

Mitchell said: "We will deliver our 500 police officers this term, without a doubt ... what we've said is that we're not going to get hung up on a date."

In a social media post, Peters said New Zealanders cared more about the target being reached rather than the specific timing of when it had been reached.

"They don’t care if we reach that number of NEW EXTRA POLICE in November or a few weeks after that. The media need to stop acting like they’ve got ants in their pants with this beltway bovine scatology," the Deputy Prime Minister wrote.

"By the way, NZ First promised and is delivering MORE FRONTLINE POLICE than any other party campaigned on…for a third time in government — let’s see the media report on that … crickets."

Police officials have previously warned that the November 25 target looked shaky.

It's also not the first time the target has been the subject of scrutiny. In January 2024, the Police Minister was forced to eat his words after he suggested the target would only be made in the Government's first term, and not the two years agreed to with NZ First.

At the time, PM Christopher Luxon said Mitchell "may have muddled his words".

In a Q+A interview, which aired on Sunday, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the coalition's "ambitious" targets for recruiting 500 new frontline officers would likely come in the "early part of 2026" instead of by the end of November.

"I'm absolutely focused, obviously, on the end of November this year … it will be a challenge. We still work with that in mind, but it's more likely to be, I would say, early part of 2026. I'm hopeful."

Mitchell earlier rejected the characterisation that the promise to deliver on the 500 new officers had been a "failure" on Sunday, despite being previously committed to it.

"We set a date of November 25 for the police to do that. We remain committed to delivering our 500 police officers, however, obviously, there have been a few things happen since then," he said, in response to media questions.

"The commissioner has obviously come out and clearly said that they may not be able to make the November 25 target. That was the target set by the coalition government.

"But we support the commissioner, and we support the fact that we want to focus on standards. We're not compromised on those but it takes a bit longer."