According to new fees proposed by Police, it takes a staffer 35 hours of work to process one firearms license application. The finding comes from a new analysis by the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO) which compared the wages of Police staff with the newly proposed fees for firearm license holders.

An analysis by COLFO has found Police are set to make over $700 in profit every time a licensed firearm owner renews their license, paid for by the taxpayer and the license holder themselves. At the current rate of 2,000 license renewals per month, Police will earn $1.4 million dollars profit every month.

Consultation on the new fees closes tomorrow after being extended two weeks due to Cyclone Gabrielle, and Police are yet to release a promised explanation for how the proposed cost increases for licensed firearm owners were derived.

In the new proposals, Police state that the full cost to them to issue a standard license is $960 to $1,060. The standard salary for a Police Constable, who would process the application, is $56,219.00, or $27.03 per hour. That means it would take the Constable, assuming the lower $960 cost, 35 hours and 30 minutes to complete the process for one license application.

COLFO spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says it’s impossible that issuing a single license would take that long.

“They could be worse than we thought at their jobs, but it’s far more likely Police are set to profit to an extreme from these fees.”

Even if the work was done by a higher-paid staffer, such as an Arms Officer (which is unusual), that would still equate to 27 hours, 30 minutes of time on the maximum $30.13/hr salary.

It could be argued the exceptional cost is to cover sundries like operating expenses. COLFO estimates it takes 8 hours for Police to process a license applicant if they follow the correct process. One hour each to interview the applicant and the referees, making a total of 3 hours with perhaps two hours travelling time, and the rest to write up any report needed. At $27.03 per hour for a constable and 8 hours expended, that totals $216.24.

Using the lower $960 cost again, that leaves $743.76 to cover any sundries (operating expenses, wage and cost increases, non-salary labour costs, overheads, depreciation), though the Police have not explained or justified what these may be.

Devereux-Mack says this is an exceptional amount to cover additional costs.

“We can’t justify the equations no matter how many allowances we make for the Police. It’s just not possible that one license would cost that much to process, which means they’re making a profit.

“Business owners could only dream of these profit margins. If correct, the figures show how much money Police have been funnelling from the taxpayer – the question is where it all goes.

“I can fully believe they did their numbers wrong, but this needs to be corrected, and fast.”

At 24,000 renewals a year or 2,000 a month, then assuming only constables process the renewals, 2000 x 35.5 hours equals 71,000 hours of Police time a month. If the constable works a standard 40-hour week, this requires 444 constables a week to process those renewals that month.

Devereux-Mack says if processing licenses takes this much work, it’s no wonder renewals have been taking up to a year, with Police requesting licensed firearm owners to apply 6 months in advance to ensure they don’t break the law.

“These numbers give an insight into the absurdity of the levels and cost of work being undertaken by Police. It is exactly why we asked for an independent firearms authority.

“Yet Police continue to take on and create even more regulatory work for firearms, when they simply can’t handle it.”

Members of the public have until midnight, 2 March 2023 to submit on the proposed fees. They can make a submission by going to https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/programmes-and-initiatives/consultation-arms-regulations-review-fees-2022

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