Police will conduct an audit, assessing applicants over a six-month period. Video / Alex Burton, Alyse Wright
149 police recruits graduated without a swimming assessment due to a cryptosporidium outbreak at public pools in Wellington.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell has expressed concerns, saying water competency during police training is important.
The Police Association argued against retesting, citing officer safety and the non-mandatory nature of the assessment.
The Herald revealed this week an audit of hundreds of applicants is being carried out after some who failed fitness test prerequisites were approved to start police college anyway.
Two groups of police recruits comprising 149 constables graduated from police college despite not being assessed on their ability to swim - a decision Police Minister Mark Mitchell says doesn’t meet his expectations and he’s directed police to get them back to the pool.
Policesay 76 constables in wing 383 and 73 constables in wing 381 didn’t get tested on water competency this month because there was a cryptosporidium outbreak linked to public pools around Wellington.
Cryptosporidium is a contagious stomach bug that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.
The recruits graduated and were not required to return to college for the assessment after the outbreak was over.
I have made my expectations clear that the officers still receive this assessment
Royal New Zealand Police College Superintendent Penelope Gifford said the swimming assessment is not a deal-breaker in terms of whether a recruit graduates or not because the assessment is designed to make recruits aware of their own abilities and limitations when responding to emergencies involving water.
She said the assessment involves retrieving a brick underwater, treading water while holding the brick, and it examines whether the recruit can swim 50m in under a minute and tread water for five minutes.
“This is not a pass/fail test. It is utilised to assess basic levels of competence in the water.”
A cryptosporidium outbreak in Wellington this month was traced back to public swimming pools.
She told the Herald it’s not mandatory for recruits to complete the assessment in order to graduate and the disease outbreak made it too risky to ask recruits to get in the water.
“After assessing the potential risks to recruits after an outbreak of cryptosporidium across the wider Wellington area, we determined there was a health and safety risk to undertaking water competency training”, she told the Herald.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told the Herald he's asked police to assess the officers who were not tested on their ability to swim due to a cryptosporidium outbreak. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Mitchell pushed back on the suggestion the assessment wasn’t critical, telling the Herald he’s spoken to police about the issue.
“It is a reasonable expectation that our police officers as part of their training undergo a water competency assessment. I have made my expectations clear that the officers still receive this assessment,” he told the Herald.
Following the Minister’s statement, police confirmed the newly appointed constables would undertake the swim assessment over the next four months.
It is worrying to hear parts of the police college training are not being completed
The police recruitment website states it’s “important you are confident around water” before applying to join police.
All police recruit applicants must fill out a “self-assessment” form confirming they can complete five water-related tasks.
The description of what applicants should be comfortable doing differs from the actual college assessment which involves diving for the brick and treading water.
The tasks listed online include being submerged, removing clothing while in water, swimming 50m freestyle, 25m sidestroke and 25m breaststroke.
“If you are not confident in completing these tasks, we recommend you improve your swimming skills before applying [to join police college as a recruit],” the website said.
A person who emailed the Herald said they were aware a person who graduated in a wing was not tested on their swimming ability.
They said the graduate “cannot swim freestyle satisfactorily and certainly not 50 metres”.
The emailer felt it was an important element of training given there are circumstances where police need to rescue people from the water.
“I can understand the decision to prevent recruits coming down with cryptosporidium or spreading it in the police college but surely some process should have been put in place to ensure all recruits meet all the requirements,” they said.
Labour's police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen says follow-up training should have been provided for recruits who graduated without any formal swimming assessment. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen said it makes sense that all recruits are assessed on basic water competency skills.
“It is worrying to hear parts of the police college training are not being completed.”
The Police Association had a different perspective on the issue.
The Association’s vice president Paul Ormerod said he understood the public expectation that officers are there to save people in distress - including those in the water.
However, he said each officer makes an individual assessment based on the situation they’re faced with, and this includes deciding whether it’s safe to perform a water rescue.
“It does not make sense for an officer, who cannot swim strongly enough to save someone from drowning, to jump in a river or the sea and risk their own life as well. A basic level of water skill is for officer safety around waterways not for rescuing the public,” he said.
The Police Association does not support making the graduates return to college to complete the swimming assessment.
Ormerod did not support sending the recruits back to college to be assessed for their swimming ability given how busy trainers were and because it wasn’t a requirement for graduates to start frontline work.
The revelations of recruits graduating without being assessed for basic water competency comes after the Herald revealed on Monday three applicants were approved to start training at police college despite failing the Physical Appraisal Test (PAT).
Assistant Police Commissioner Tusha Penny said what happened was a “clear breach of the recruitment policy”.
Police have said they will carry out an audit reviewing applicants over a six-month period to determine if any other applicants who failed fitness standards slipped through.
Hundreds of applicants will need to be reviewed.
Labour and the Association blamed pressure from the government for the fitness test breaches, although Mitchell denied personally meddling in the situation telling the Herald there was “no interference”.
The government has set a target of getting an extra 500 police on the frontline by November 27 - policy police have consistently said is “ambitious” and the Association has called “highly unlikely”.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won the best coverage of a major news event at the 2024 Voyager NZ Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald‘svideo team in July 2024.
