“This will be like the Hunger Games,” said one source, comparing the looming competition for jobs to the fictional book and film trilogy in which contestants are pitted against one another for survival.
Details about which roles are affected were not made public by Police National Headquarters but the Herald has obtained the consultation document given to staff.
The number of roles at the second-highest tier of the organisation, who are either deputy commissioners or the civilian deputy chief executive equivalent, will be cut from five to three under the proposal.
But two of the current deputy commissioners, Tania Kura and Jevon McSkimming, are exempt from the restructure because they are statutory Government appointments and independent of the commissioner.
That means a trio of roles – Deputy Commissioner Chris de Wattignar and Deputy Chief Executives Pieri Munro and Andrea Conlan – will be disestablished under the proposal and replaced by the new position of chief operating officer.
Currently, de Wattignar is responsible for “people, leadership and culture”, while Munro holds the “iwi and communities” portfolio and Conlan is in charge of “strategy and performance”.
At the next tier down, the number of assistant commissioners (or the civilian equivalent of executive directors) will be reduced from 16 to 13.
The biggest proposed change at this rank is the disestablishment of the three assistant commissioner positions responsible for the 12 police districts.
Currently, the district commanders are grouped by geography and report to Sam Hoyle (Auckland), Sandra Venables (the rest of the North Island) and Mike Johnson (South Island).
In turn, the trio of assistant commissioners report to Kura.
Under the new proposal, that layer of management will be removed and the 12 district commanders will report directly to Kura and McSkimming.
But to complicate matters, McSkimming is currently suspended from his deputy commissioner role while a criminal investigation is under way.
The proposed restructure would also move to a common position description for the assistant commissioner rank, who would then be assigned portfolios.
This means Hoyle, Venables and Johnson will be competing with their peers, including senior officers such as Sue Schwalger, Mike Rusbatch, Mike Pannett, Tusha Penny, Paul Basham, Bruce O’Brien, Jill Rogers, and others, for a reduced number of assistant commissioner roles.
The restructure would also see a net reduction of six “director”-level positions, as well as the number of staff needed to support the shrunken executive.
Police National Headquarters declined to comment on the details of the restructure.
In the original press release announcing the restructure, Chambers said all feedback would be carefully considered before final decisions are made in late February.
“It’s also important to note that I’m absolutely committed to boosting our front line and redundancy is not available to constabulary employees.”
Frontline staff have welcomed the proposed shrinking of the executive – most of whom receive salaries in excess of $300,000 – and hope the streamlined structure will lead to better leadership in the future.
“There are so many layers of management at the moment that no one can make a decision,” said one officer. “They just pass it up the chain.”
However, a reduced executive means fewer opportunities for promotion for the next wave of ambitious leaders coming through the ranks.
As redundancy will not be offered to sworn police officers, the Herald also understands those who miss out on roles in the new structure will lose their rank but keep their salary for two years.
Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
