'Many will start to retire' - 150% increase in cops older than 55

Figures obtained by 1News under the Official Information Act show there's been an "almost 150% increase in constabulary employees 55 years old or older", over the past decade. That's compared to a 13% increase for those younger than 55.

The briefing, sent to the minister of police in December, provided an overview of the police workforce size, stating that "many will start to retire over the next few years, driving up attrition and the demand on recruitment".

"We're not expecting that to cause us significant difficulty in the near term, but in the medium to long term, we will see higher rates of attrition," said Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.

While police have a workforce of more than 15,000 people, constabulary officers represent more than 10,000 of those staff.

Many of them are on the front line, investigating crimes, performing road and foot patrols, and responding to 111 calls, among a range of other roles.

Over the past six years, police numbers have grown by more than 3600, as the organisation delivers more services like the 105 emergency line and centralised case management support.

However, this briefing showed that while constabulary employee attrition rates have been "consistently in the 4 to 5.5% range" since the 1990s, only moving outside of that band during significant events like the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the overall attrition rate "will trend up by 0.2 to 0.3% each year for the next decade, reaching 7 to 8% in the mid-2030s".

"We're monitoring it, because we're very conscious that we want to deliver an additional 500 additional front line police officers in the next two years," Police Minister Mark Mitchell said.

Coster is confident that'll happen, even though constabulary applications dipped last year.

"We've seen an uptick in the number of people applying to join police in recent months, the job environment is now much tighter than it was," Coster said.

The briefing also highlighted resource issues in particular regions, and that the need "does not always align with where recruits want to reside. Areas where we need more staff include Northland and the East Coast."

"I know for a fact East Coast is doing very well with their recruiting," said Mitchell.

"They've got some very good recruiting officers there that are in the community identifying people that maybe are interested in a career in policing and getting on side and helping them."