Two weeks to cut 10% of police fleet

Police fear the fleet cut of 10 per cent will lead to delayed response times. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Police units around the country have two weeks to decide which vehicles to axe, after a directive from their commissioner that more than 300 vehicles will be taken off the roads to save $2.4 million.

It is understood the June 30 deadline was set to coincide with the end of the financial year and officers may also be forced to take accrued leave as a cost-saving option.

Yesterday the Herald reported that 10 per cent of the police's fleet of 3397 would be lost, a figure since confirmed by the commissioner's office.

Deputy Commissioner Lynn Provost said that police would make savings by "running a similar mileage as this year but with 10 per cent fewer vehicles", meaning there should be minimal impact on policing.

She added that district commanders had given her office assurances that their frontline work would not be compromised.

She said the 10 per cent figure applied to the 2008/2009 fleet and did not include extra vehicles for Counties-Manukau costing $2.08 million.

Police Minister Judith Collins also maintained there would be no drop in service delivery. "There will be no issues regarding safety for the public or for the police," she said.

Counties-Manukau and North Shore district commanders could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Auckland City Superintendent George Fraser confirmed the minister's claim.

"The issue of cost-saving or budgetary restraints was discussed and a collective decision was made by the police executive, which includes the district commanders, and there was no dissension."

Police Association president Greg O'Connor, who yesterday said the cut could only lead to a reduced service, could not be reached for comment.

Ms Provost said details of which vehicles would go had not been finalised, but Ms Collins said the clawback would not affect the frontline.

"My understanding from police and the assurance I've been given is that you're not talking about frontline cars, you're talking about vans and pool cars and making better use of some of those."

But this does not appear to be the case in some areas.

The Herald is aware of at least one vehicle-dependent unit in Auckland losing a frontline car and understands the motorways division will also lose frontline vehicles.

Another unit on the North Shore, which had two vehicles for seven officers will be cut to one. There are concerns among officers that the cut will lead to delayed response times and a revival of car shortages, as in the 1990s, when officers often had to wait up to an hour for a car to become free.

Opposition spokesman for law and order Clayton Cosgrove said the minister was "obviously out of touch" with policing if she did not consider police vans "frontline".

"She's obviously never been out with police when they are doing team policing at pubs, with paddy wagons and such."

He challenged the assertion that cutting 10 per cent of the fleet would mean a saving of $2.4 million.

"'Savings' is National Party jargon, it is a cost cut, it is a cut in ancillary resources."

A source, who did not wish to be identified, suggested the reported "savings" made by dumping 340 cars, was outweighed by the loss of about $10.5 million in assets.

This was probably an underestimation, he said, by putting the cost of an average police car at $30,000.

"When they want to replace them, that $10.5 million will have inflated to between $15 and $20 million."