Brian Neeson

National Police Spokesman

11 July 2000

Cutting corners on police training is unwise

The decision to decrease the amount of training given to new Police recruits could create serious problems down the track, National's Police spokesman Brian Neeson said today.

Instead of the standard 21 week training programme, new recruits to the Police College will be trained for just 18 weeks.

"That wouldn't be such a problem if the training had been simply made more intensive, with highly skilled instructors.

"But in the rush to push through more new recruits the Government has cut corners. Many of those who will train the new recruits are staff taken straight off the beat with little or no experience as police instructors.

"Maybe the Government will get away with this training cutback, but maybe they won't.

"It would give me no pleasure at all if a situation arises whereby an officer or member of the public is injured or killed, and inadequate training is cited as a possible cause.

"In this case the Government is risking public and police safety to achieve a political goal of a specified number of police by November 2001. Quite simply that's not acceptable," Brian Neeson said.

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