"I think it's a healthy target to have zero complaints. That would be outstanding and that's what we aim for, but we have procedures for when we fall below that," he said.
"Considering the amount of contact we have with the public, [the numbers] are low ... Hopefully they reflect the fact we have pretty good dealings with public on a day-to-day basis."
Police took complaints of misconduct seriously, he said. "Those numbers show, although they're small, that we take a wide range of measures to deal with those complaints so that they are upheld.
"We conduct a proper inquiry depending on the nature of the complaint made to us.
"A lot of the complaints we receive are in regard to language used or action taken by a staff member or a perception that we didn't investigate properly or haven't done something how the person who made the complaint thought we should.
"A lot of them can quite often be resolved just through taking the time to talk to people about their complaint and what the circumstances around it are. In other cases more has to be done."
It was clear to officers what was expected of them, he said. "A lot has been done to reinforce police values and codes of conduct. We work hard to create an environment, where staff can elevate concerns, that both protects them and allows us to deal with the issues."
Nationally 131 police officers faced criminal charges in the past five years.
The number of police charged was highest in 2013 at 35. Last year 29 police were charged.
Over four years 313 police received counselling, 373 were disciplined through professional conversation, 173 received performance management and an adverse report was filed for one officer.
A further 178 police were given first warnings, 63 second warnings and 71 officers were given third and final warnings. Five officers were dismissed and five were reprimanded.
Meanwhile, 136 officers resigned and 17 retired during the disciplinary process.
Labour's police spokesman Kelvin Davis said any issues with police were regrettable.
"It is disappointing that there have been any disciplinary issues in the police at all but ... it is great that they are addressing areas of discipline and performance," he said.
He expected police were taking issues more seriously than they used to.
"There was obviously a spike in disciplinary action in 2012 and 2013, but without an in-depth analysis of each case, it is hard to comment on reasons.
"Maybe the police were taking issues a lot more seriously and addressed things that in the past may have been overlooked, which is a good thing."
