Kiota. I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. An investigation by the New Zealand Herald has revealed concerns with police recruitment over the last several months. We've learned that prospective cops who didn't pass fitness or literacy tests were allowed to start training, and dozens of recruits graduated from police college despite not being assessed on their ability to swim. It's prompted and ordered by police of the process and
promises to change things. But has the damage already been done? And said Harold. Investigative reporter Michael Morra has led the charge on this and is with us today on the Front Page to run through what's gone wrong here and how police have responded. For those of us who don't know, Michael, what does it take to become a police officer? I assume that we just can't rock up and sign up.
Pay, Absolutely not. So there are background checks. Police would be interested to know about any previous convictions, any possible gang links or affiliations, so those checks are done as well as that you have to pass various fitness standards, including completing a two point four kilometer run under a certain timeframe. There's also a grip strength test and a jump test, so those are all requirements before you start
at Police College and training. Along with that, there's psychometric testing, so this is essentially to test that you have the abilities, the cognitive abilities for police work, so it assesses things like your ability to reason and so all of those things combined give police a good idea of whether or not that applicant is a suitable person to go through Police College to then become a constable and join the New Zealand Police.
I understand there have been some concerns about the recruitment process. What are they? So?
I was first alerted to concerns about the recruitment process in April, and essentially the information that came to me was that there had been instances where applicants seeking to start at Police College were being given exemptions or having discretionary decisions based on their applications, which it was alleged at the time was allowing people who had not passed
fitness tests into the Police College. That was of course of interest because police have always said even with the new five hundred new police officers, by November target that the government introduced that standards would not drop. That standards to become a police officer in New Zeland is still very rigorous and robust, and you have to dot all the ey's and cross all the t's and get through all of these various steps before you can bear constable in New Zealand.
I believe that both the Minister and the Commissioner have not been upfront with New Zealanders about the process at the Police College, and this risks undermining the integrity of the New Zealand Police. I asked a straight up question during Scrutiny Week as to whether a direction or an order was given for recruits to be let through, and the answer from both the Minister and the Commissioner of
Police was that that had not occurred. And now this information that's come to light seems to contradict that.
So police have audited hundreds of recruitment applications over fitness standard breaches. Tell me a little bit more about that.
So when I started asking questions about this, Police confirmed to me that in indeed they had identified that at least three candidates had been allowed into Police College in
the past year. This was in April when I first started asking questions, and they were allowed in because discretionary decisions on their application had been made or some form of exemption had been made, which essentially allowed potential police officers had failed the prerequisites to be a police officer to just go ahead and get into Police College anyway. And on acknowledging that, they announced an audit and that audit was carried out from January last year into April
this year. So I was essentially scrutinizing oneenty twenty two recruits from fourteen wings over that time.
Period and didn't nearly three hundred and fifty recruits graduate despite skipping a swimming assessment.
Yes, that was another tip that I was provided with after my initial coverage of the fitness test issue, I was informed that indeed some of the recruits who were going through Police College graduated despite not carrying out the
swimming assessment. Now Police told me, look, this is not a pass or failed test, but obviously it's important for anyone who's joining the New Zealand Police to have an understanding a personal understanding of their abilities in the water, so if they are faced with an emergency situation which would involve them getting into the water. They are going to have an understanding from a personal level whether they should indeed get into the water and rescue someone or not.
But just to emphasize here, this was never a pass or fail test. But on revealing that hundreds of recruits had not been assessed on their abilities in the water, Police Minister Mark Mitchell did not like this at all and he essentially ordered them all those recruits to return to the pool and carry out the assessment, saying it's important those recruits who were now actually police offices know their own abilities.
How did this come to your attention that this was happening.
Well overall, I mean it was you know, via a couple of sources who informed me that this was going on. This is not in relation to the swimming assessment that was separate, but in a sense there was a level of disquiet within police. I was informed that substandard recruits were being allowed through into Police College when they had not passed key prerequisites, including the fitness test to become a police officer. And so that was the overriding concern.
And of course as a journalist that is of interest because of the promises we have heard for months now that standards would not be dropped, and so of course we had this audit that was carried out.
It just seems like one of those stories that you get a tip off and you just start scratching the surface and more and more kind of comes out. Am I right in thinking that?
Absolutely? I mean to the Police's credit on establishing after I asked questions about exemptions and discretionary decisions, to their credit, they did carry out this audit, and of course they went a lot further than just looking at the fitness test. They in fact looked at a whole lot of areas and went back until January twenty twenty four, and the results of course verified my reporting that indeed there were candidates who had failed the fitness test but were being
allowed into Police College anyway. But it also revealed there were a whole lot of other areas where candidates had failed to meet the key prerequisites but were allowed in any way. So seventeen Police College applicants failed the fitness test completely or were allowed to complete parts of the assessment on different dates, which is a breach of policy. Those people were allowed into the Police College one hundred
and twenty eight candidates. This is the biggest sort of area of failure failed basic English assessments but got the green light to go into Police College. Anyway, There were thirty six recruits who failed psychometric tests but were allowed to reseit those tests until they passed, and that was seen as a breach of policy because the recommendation is that if you fail that psychometric test, you stand down for at least six months before you are allowed to
reset the tests. So there were many areas where breaches were confirmed.
So we receive about five hundred applications per month to join our organization who made their way to me for exemptions over the fourteen sixteen months or so, So that should offer you some reassurance that the standards have not dropped, have not been adapted, and the public can be reassured that there are top quality people graduating out of the college every single month. So I hope that provides some reassurance to them.
Colleagues of ours were part of the public release of information earlier on that goes back to able one hundred percent support the decision, and I understand they're going to be voted of police officers. And that's the third.
Reason, And what's this about? Police Assistant Commissioner Jill Rodgers allowing recruits who failed fitness tests to start at Police College.
Well, one of the overriding concerns of my sources was that this drop and standards was essentially being blamed on frontline staff, so staff within recruitment staff at the Police College, when in fact, it was alleged, according to my sources, some of these big decisions and exemptions were being made at the top level of police, so within the Police executive. Now I had information that Assistant Police Commissioner Jill Rodgers did indeed allow some exemptions and make those calls herself.
I asked this question of the Police media team and they indeed confirmed that Rogers did allow at least a couple of candidates who had failed the fitness test to go ahead and start Police College. It's worth noting, however, that the Police Commissioner has said that he fully backs Jill Rogers in doing this and making these discretionary decisions
at the time. But of course, since this order has come out and all of the issues that have come from this, both the Commissioner and the Assistant commission have been very clear that no further exemptions will be permitted at all for any candidate.
Nobody should go to work worrying whether their store is going to be robbed or ram rated. But I'm sick of it. Kiwi's are sick of it, and it's unacceptable, and that's why our government has rammed up our actions to keep Kiewe safe and to make New Zealand a much tougher place for anyone involved in crime. So you'll be seeing some fresh faces on CBD streets, with beat officers having already been deployed at the start of this month in Auckland to help police to reduce crime and
importantly improve public safety. It's all part of our plan to restore law in order and to get New Zealand back contract.
Well, we know that there's a real push to get five hundred extra cops on the front line by the end of November. The government's promised one hundred and ninety one million dollars over four years and has dubbed it a priority. Was that a mistake? Do you think promising these extra cops and publicizing this as a headline.
Well, look, I mean I'm not a politician, but politicians will make all sorts of promises prior to coming into power. Law and order's always been one of those areas which interests people in a wide part of our society looking at this and promising the five hundred police officers, and very clearly they are not going to meet that target by November. So I mean, look, a police have always said, including the Police Commissioner, has always said that that target
was ambitious. It's looking increasingly unlikely that that target will be met. Of course, as soon as I broke the story their first story in April about exemptions and discretionary decisions being made to allow substandard recruits into Police College. The concern at that point from my sources from the Labor Party and from the Police Association was that there was political pressure being applied to those within the police executive who in turn were applying pressure to other staff
to meet targets. And one of the ways it was alleged to meet those targets is to drop standards, make some discretionary decisions around candidates who maybe weren't up to scratch quite but you know, would let them go in any way. So that is the allegation that that they have succumbed to political pressure. Of course, that is something that Police Minister Mark Mitchell and the Associate Police Minister Casey Costello deny. They say they have never applied pressure to anyone within police.
Do you think as well, that by opening the door to underqualified candidates are policing problems just they're going to get worse, aren't they not better? I think we all want the best people possible on the front lines, don't we.
Well, that is the concern of some of my sources is that if you are allowing candidates who don't meet the grade to essentially end up on the front line, you know, working on the streets as a police officer,
then that is not great for public safety. And in fact, that is a key point the Police Association made to me after the initial story I did on this, was that it's all about public safety and we have to be reassured as the public that those officers who are graduating from police college and then starting their careers on the beat are up to scratch. I think though, it's
also worth putting into this into context. While there have been dozens of breaches identified, I think it would be going too far to say that we have, you know, all recruits. So we're coming out of the Police College and not up to scratch, because this is a section of applicants that were scrutinized over a certain period of time.
And while that did reveal breaches, it did not show that all oney twenty two recruits over that January twenty twenty four to April twenty twenty five period, it did not show that all of them were no good.
Is there anything else we need to get clarity on from Police Michael when it comes to the recruitment process.
Well, certainly the findings of the audit sparked by my initial reporting have been released in a preliminary form, you know. So this is a preliminary and not a final report. So we will at some point be expecting to receive the final report. And of course the Police Minister is
actually alleging that the final report. He's apparently been given a verbal briefing on it, according to his office, and he is saying, well, that will show, especially when it comes to literacy, and remember literacy was a key standard that was dropped. One hundred and twenty eight recruits failed English a basic English assessment over this period. You know,
that was under review. And he will say or he is claiming that indeed it was the Labor Party who under their previous administration introduced a drop and standards to literacy. Labor is saying, well, no, it should be the Police Minister Mark Mitchell, who accepts blame for this drop and standards because the period that was under review was a period when he was the Police Minister. But no doubt there is a lot more to come out of this yet.
Thanks for joining us, Michael Pleasure. That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also our sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.