Jacinda  ARDERN

Police and Corrections Spokesperson                       

19 February 2014  MEDIA STATEMENT 

Crime fund used to rescue broke Police budget

Police budgets are so stretched they have been forced to dip into a crime-fighting fund to pay for redundancies, Labour’s Police spokesperson Jacinda Ardern says.

Documents released to Labour under the Official Information Act reveal $12 million from the Justice Sector Fund has been used to meet Police HR redundancy costs.

“That fund is for initiatives that ‘contribute to the Government’s results of reduced crime and reoffending and/or justice sector key result areas’. It is aimed at delivering ‘better results’.

“How Anne Tolley can claim redundancies are in any way helping to reduce crime or deliver better results is beyond me.

“The Police budget was cut last year and is set to decline over the next three years. This highlights exactly the constraints they are operating under, as does the so-called ‘additional enhancement’ to arms training, announced earlier this week.

“That is nothing more than the Government reinstating reductions it made to training for Police Strategic Traffic Unit members and other front line staff in 2009.

“Ms Tolley cannot continue to claim that the Police are able to live within the reduced budget she has given them, when they’ve had to go cap in hand to cover staffing issues.

“It’s time the Minister acknowledged that she is asking the police to do more, with less, and that will eventually come at an even higher cost.”

ENDS

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