By Rebecca Wright
A career on the front line has been put just out of reach of wannabe officers hoping to get into Police training in January.
And, the announcement came from an unlikely quarter - Labour Leader Phil Goff.
“They have cancelled an entire police wing of recruits who were due to come in in January – that’s been cancelled,” says Mr Goff
Minister of Police Judith Collins, however, disagrees.
“No there is cancellation of the January intake, there is a deferment,” she says.
Whether it be ‘cancellation’ or ‘deferment’ there will be no new cops joining training in January.
“The reason for that is because the attrition rate or the number of people leaving police is now at a very low level – 3.2 percent,” says Ms Collins.
The attrition rate in the Police is actually 3.5 percent – an increase of 1.2 percent in the past two years.
Mr Goff says the move is a measure to save money by Police – a claim denied by Ms Collins.
The Minister does however admit it will save costs.
“Clearly if they can defer that January intake to March then it clearly saves them that cost by two months, but that’s all it saves them,” she says.
The Government says this was an operational decision but the man in charge of the operation, Police Commissioner Peter Marshall, would not be interviewed by 3 News.
The Minister however, was happy to talk about the controversial 'operational matter'.
So we asked - is the Commissioner concerned about this leak from within police?
“He’s not concerned about where they’re coming from because they’re wrong,” Ms Collins says.
“He also denies absolutely that there was any cover up by Police in this matter,” she says, responding to allegations of a Police cover up to protect National from any fallout so close to the election.
None of this, however, satisfies Mr Goff.
“I hope now that the pressure will come on Police to find savings in other areas than frontline police,” he says.
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