The New Zealand Police () is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintaining public order. With over 15,000 personnel, it is the largest law enforcement agency in New Zealand and, with few exceptions, has primary jurisdiction over the majority of New Zealand criminal law. The New Zealand Police also has responsibility for traffic and commercial vehicle enforcement as well as other key responsibilities including protection of dignitaries, firearms licensing, and matters of national security.
Policing in New Zealand was introduced in 1840, modelled on similar constabularies that existed in Britain at that time. The constabulary was initially part police and part militia. By the end of the 19th century policing by consent was the goal and since the change the New Zealand Police has generally enjoyed a reputation for mild policing, but there have been cases when the use of force was criticised, such as during the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand and the United States. New Zealand is one of only 19 countries with a 'generally unarmed' police service. While New Zealand Police officers do not routinely carry firearms, they do have access to firearms in their vehicles.
The current Minister of Police is Mark Mitchell. While the New Zealand Police is a government department with a minister responsible for it, the commissioner and sworn members swear allegiance directly to the sovereign and, by convention, have constabulary independence from the government of the day.
The New Zealand Police is perceived to have a minimal level of institutional corruption, though it has been involved in a variety of controversies over its long history.
Origins and history Prior to British colonisation, law in New Zealand was based on and enforced by local iwi leaders through formal assemblies called rūnanga, with enforcement action carried out by selected warriors or expert practitioners called tohunga.
Colonial Police: 1840
The first formal policing service in New Zealand started in 1840 with the arrival of six constables of the New South Wales mounted police accompanying Lieutenant Governor William Hobson's official landing party to form the colony of New Zealand. Governor Hobson empowered Police Magistrates to appoint constables to enforce British laws within the early settlements.
The early 1800s saw increased scrutiny of policing practices throughout the British Empire, inspired in particular by the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 which had introduced policing by consent. Despite these reforms, policing in colonial New Zealand continued to operate by force, especially towards Māori people. Supplemented by a small number of British soldiers, the Colonial Police played a significant role in extending British control beyond the first settlements.
Armed Police Force: 1846 Under governor George Grey, the colonial police forces were replaced by the Armed Police Force (APF) in 1846, under the Constabulary Act 1846. The subsequent Armed Constabulary Act 1867 focused the force on dealing with unrest between the indigenous Māori and the encroaching European settlers and the force grew to 200 musket-trained men. The armed constabulary took part in military actions against Māori opponents Riwha Tītokowaru in Taranaki and Te Kooti in the central North Island in the final stages of the New Zealand Wars.
New Zealand Constabulary Force: 1877
The Provinces of New Zealand Act 1875 abolished the early provinces of New Zealand, and as a result, the AFP merged with the assorted policing organisations present in the former provinces to form the New Zealand Constabulary Force in 1877. The new force had two main divisions: the Policing Branch in the cities and the Field Force, which continued to exercise military-style surveillance over Māori in some areas. The last significant operation of the Field Force was the crushing of Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi's passive resistance movement at Parihaka in 1881.
New Zealand Police Force: 1886 The New Zealand Police Force was established as a single national law enforcement agency under the Police Force Act 1886. At the same time, the militia functions of the Armed Constabulary were transferred to the New Zealand Permanent Militia by the Defence Act 1886.
Just a decade later, policing in New Zealand was given a significant overhaul. In 1898 there was a very constructive Royal Commission of Enquiry into New Zealand Police. The Royal Commission, which included the reforming Commissioner Tunbridge who had come from the Metropolitan Police in London, produced a far-reaching report which laid the basis for positive reform of New Zealand Police for the next several decades. A complete review of police legislation in 1908 built significantly off the Royal Commission's work.
A further police force act, in 1947, reflected some changes of a growing New Zealand, and a country coming out of World War II. The most significant change in the structure and arrangement for police came after the departure of Commissioner Compton under a cloud of government and public concern over his management of Police in 1955. The appointment of a caretaker civilian leader of police, especially titled "controller general" to recognise his non-operational background, opened the windows on the organisation and allowed a period of positive and constructive development to take place.
In 1953 police horses were retired.
New Zealand Police: 1958 Despite being the same organisation in 1958, the word force was removed from the name with the Police Act 1958, which was a significant overhaul of police legislation.
On 1 July 1992, the Traffic Safety Service of the Ministry of Transport was merged with the police. Up until that time, the Ministry of Transport and local councils had been responsible for traffic law enforcement. In 2000, the police re-established a specialist road policing branch known as the "highway patrol". Today the police are mainly responsible for enforcing traffic law, while local councils can appoint parking wardens, who can enforce traffic rules regarding parking and special vehicle lanes. In 2010, after some calls to split traffic enforcement again from standard police duties, it was decided that it would remain part of their duties, partly due to the public having shown "enormous support" for it remaining this way.
The Police Act 1958 was extensively reviewed starting in 2006, after a two and a half-year consultative process the Policing Act 2008 came into effect on 1 October 2008. The process included the world's first use of a wiki to allow the public to submit or propose amendments. The wiki was open for less than two weeks, but drew international attention.
More recently, the New Zealand Police has been involved in international policing and peacekeeping missions to East Timor and the Solomon Islands, to assist these countries with establishing law and order after civil unrest. It has also been involved in community police training in Bougainville, in conjunction with Australian Federal Police. Other overseas deployments for regional assistance and relief have been to Afghanistan as part of the reconstruction effort, the Kingdom of Tonga, Thailand for the tsunami disaster and Indonesia after terrorist bombings. New Zealand Police maintains an international policing support network in eight foreign capitals, and has about 80 staff deployed in differing international missions.
Female officers
In 1936, there was "a proposal to establish a women police branch in New Zealand", and former principal of the women's section of the South Australia Police, Kate Cocks (1875–1954), attended to speak to the member of the government, the commissioner of police, and a gathering of women's societies.
Women were first admitted to the police in 1941 but were not issued uniforms. One of the first intakes was Edna Bertha Pearce, who received the badge number S1 when she was finally issued a uniform in 1952. Pearce made the first arrest by a female police officer in New Zealand. By January 1949, officer R. M. Hadfield did a cross-Tasman interchange, working for two months in Sydney, a month in Melbourne, and Tasmania. At the time, female officers wore only small badges under their coat lapels. 1994 was the last year female officers had a separate uniform to men with the removal of skirts in 1995. In 2020, hijabs were introduced as part of the uniform for Muslim women. Retrieved 21 April 2023
In 2023 on international women's day Director of Recruitment Paula Hill said "As at 31 January this year we had 2,679 full time equivalent constabulary women, this means 25.6% of all constabulary are women – this is the first international women's day where more than 1 in 4 of the constabulary workforce in New Zealand Police are women."
In 1992 less than 10% of the New Zealand Police were women, but by 2024 38.5% of all New Zealand Police employees were women and 26.1% of all constabulary staff (excluding recruits) were women. This was a 0.5% increase over the previous year (2023) showing a continued improvement of the number of women in constabulary roles.
Between the resignation of Andrew Coster on the 11 November 2024 and the appointment of Richard Chambers on the 25 November 2024 the first ever female Commissioner of Police Tania Kura was appointed for an interim term of 14 days.
Early New Years Day 2025 Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming became the first female officer to be killed in the line of duty. Fleming was struck by a vehicle driving at speed in an attack described by the commissioner as "an unprovoked and senseless act".
Organisation
The Police National Headquarters provides policy and planning advice as well as national oversight and management of the organisation. Although headed by a Commissioner, the New Zealand Police is a decentralised organisation divided into 12 districts.
Each district has a geographical area of responsibility and a central station from which subsidiary and suburban stations are managed. As of March 2019, there are 327 police stations around the country with nearly 12,000 staff who respond to more than 600,000 emergency 111 calls each year.
The Commissioner is in overall charge of the New Zealand Police. Assisting the Commissioner are two chief officers in the rank of Deputy Commissioner: Deputy Commissioner-Resource Management; and Deputy Commissioner-Operations.
Five chief officers in the rank of Assistant Commissioner and the Director of Intelligence report to the Deputy Commissioner-Operations. The Assistant Commissioner-Investigations/International is responsible for the National Criminal Investigations Group, the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand (OFCANZ), Financial Crime Group, International Services Group and Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Secretariat. The Investigations and International Group leads the prevention, investigation, disruption and prosecution of serious and transnational crime. It also leads liaison, overseas deployment and capacity building with international policing partners. The Assistant Commissioner-Operations is responsible for Community Policing, Youth, Communications Centres, Operations Group, Prosecutions and Road Policing. The remaining three Assistant Commissioners command geographical policing areas – Upper North, Lower North and South. Each area is divided into three to five districts.