So it looks like looks like police will miss the deadline of adding 500 extra sworn officers by 2026.

What we were promised should take two years. Now the new Police Commissioner, when fronting scrutiny week in parliament, he said it will take 2.5 years. 

So an extra six months - will anyone really care? Probably not.

Should we care? 

When there are more bad guys out there doing bad things, we should always care about how many good guys and girls we have out there countering that. 

But on this particular point of missing a target by 180 odd days, not really.

Why? One - the target was always described as highly ambitious and that should be a clue from a politician. 

Two - they may still make the deadline. That has not been discounted at this point and they are working hard to do that. 

Three - it was only a target because it was included in the coalition agreement with New Zealand First. 

And clearly, if you follow the public comments of Mark Mitchell through the past year, even National has been sceptical about the timing of it. 

Most importantly, not hitting 500 by November next year doesn't mean that we'll have zero extra cops on the beat by that date. It means we'll probably have a few hundred extra with more coming in mid 2026. 

The most reassuring thing about this whole debacle were the words from the new Commissioner Richard Chambers who said we are not going to compromise. 

So if it takes us a little bit of time to produce the best quality offices, then we'll take that. 

And he's right, because we need 500 good cops. 500 great cops. 500 excellent cops, well trained and well resourced. 

Not 500 average cops. 

So it looks like looks like police will miss the deadline of adding 500 extra sworn officers by 2026.
What we were promised should take two years. Now the new Police Commissioner, when fronting scrutiny week in parliament, he said it will take 2.5 years.&nbsp;
So an extra six months - will anyone really care? Probably not.
Should we care?&nbsp;
When there are more bad guys out there doing bad things, we should always care about how many good guys and girls we have out there countering that.&nbsp;
But on this particular point of missing a target by 180 odd days, not really.
Why? One - the target was always described as highly ambitious and that should be a clue from a politician.&nbsp;
Two - they may still make the deadline. That has not been discounted at this point and they are working hard to do that.&nbsp;
Three - it was only a target because it was included in the coalition agreement with New Zealand First.&nbsp;
And clearly, if you follow the public comments of Mark Mitchell through the past year, even National has been sceptical about the timing of it.&nbsp;
Most importantly, not hitting 500 by November next year doesn't mean that we'll have zero extra cops on the beat by that date. It means we'll probably have a few hundred extra with more coming in mid 2026.&nbsp;
The most reassuring thing about this whole debacle were the words from the new Commissioner Richard Chambers who said we are not going to compromise.&nbsp;
So if it takes us a little bit of time to produce the best quality offices, then we'll take that.&nbsp;
And he's right, because we need 500 good cops. 500 great cops. 500 excellent cops, well trained and well resourced.&nbsp;
Not 500 average cops.&nbsp;

A fresh and intelligent start to your day - catch the very latest international and domestic news developments, sport, entertainment and business on Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, on Newstalk ZB.

A fresh and intelligent start to your day - catch the very latest international and domestic news developments, sport, entertainment and business on Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, on Newstalk ZB.

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Ryan Bridge: We need 500 excellent cops, not average ones

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/ce9830b8-c4e2-4adf-a46a-b23d01172fc0/transcript