In February 2024, Police News exposed the considerable list of appalling property issues plaguing Police and even making some Police Association members unwell.

Members reported struggling with off-limits areas due to mould, being on bucket brigade every time it rained and lockers housed in toilet cubicles.

Fourteen months later? Black mould festering, major leaks, cramped spaces and terrible or no air-conditioning are again common themes in members’ feedback on the state of their stations.

What is different is that another year of underinvestment means the list of issues is even longer – unsurprising to the many members living with them day in and day out:

• “Officers have respiratory conditions or catch infections as a result of unhygienic facilities and a lack of ventilation.”
• “There are asbestos-warning stickers on all the entrances.”
• “We continue to have monthly fogging and monitoring to kill mould spores, meanwhile other areas now leak and have black mould growth.”
• “We have a rat and bird infestation in the roof.”
• “The lifts have been broken for over two years so we have to use the mouldy stairwell.”
• “The roof panels and window sills are turning into Weet-Bix, water comes through the lights.”
• “We’ve heard that the plastic weatherproofing covering our custody unit and hired scaffolding is costing $1000 a week.”
• “Plans were made for a new build but we have no idea if/when this will be. Meanwhile, we are paying rent on two other buildings.”

The only goodish news is that Police is already working to quantify exactly how gargantuan the problem is and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers has put the hard word on both his executive and the Property team to make some meaningful progress, and soon.

It sounds good on paper but members have heard the same pledges before: “Plans are under way to have all these matters remedied, but I have heard that for the past 10 to 15 years… still no change,” said one.

“I know we’re ‘getting a new station’ but I will believe it when I actually walk through the door… in many years’ time,” said another.

Assistant Commissioner Mike Johnson was leading the Property Group last February when he said he hoped the 2024 Budget would provide “appropriate funding” to begin work on Police properties most in need of fixing. The windfall never came.

The commissioner was deliberately cautious when Police News asked about Budget 2025, citing sensitivities around the process.

When directly asked about Budget representation, he simply said he was “always talking to Police Minister [Mark Mitchell] about a whole host of issues” and that the minister had been “very supportive of our position and what we need to do”.

“We continue to seek additional support for some of the bigger issues that need resolving, and in particular, how we can better position new builds for the future.”

He emphasised that his current focus was on immediate actions “right now, here and now, to make this better” rather than future budget discussions. The commissioner said that was why he freed up an extra $7 million on January 1 to be spent on property work by the end of June.

Comment was also sought from Mark Mitchell about how high on his list of priorities are the Police property issues – first flagged with him in late 2023 as incoming Police Minister. He had not responded by deadline.

Crunching the numbers

Twenty-five people work in the Police Property team, prioritising where and how limited funds can be spread across almost 300 Police-owned buildings.

The team’s recent work includes formulating an all Police-owned buildings risk calculator to aid decision-making, have greater clarity in terms of health and safety and to have one source of truth.

The risk calculator was run over 297 building and looked at five main health and safety issues: friable (airborne) asbestos, passive fire (ensuring areas usually considered safe in a fire such as stairs really are safe)/Building Warrant of Fitness (BWOF) risks, weathertightness, front counter safety and seismic rating.

It also factored in information on the building’s condition, how faults affect current and future operations and how critical the site is to “business continuity”.

Scores were weighted for each risk type with high risk levels being in the “red or orange” zones through to low or no risk being “green or blue”. Add them all up and you get a score for each site, with the highest-risk buildings accumulating the most points.

The calculator rates buildings with a score of 46 or above as “red priority”. Of the 297 buildings Police owns, 159 are in the “red” section – likely equating to billions of dollars to make safe.

At the “top” is Greymouth with 112, RNZPC pool and gym 101, Nelson 99, RNZPC memorial 97, Lower Hutt 96, Stratford 95, Gore 94, and the RNZPC amenities block 92. Another seven buildings score in the 90s.

One Property staffer facing the seemingly insurmountable issues estimates that Police spends 80% on repairs “that are the tip of the iceberg” and 20% on preventive measures, “but it should be the other way around”.

Everything Property does is with “good intentions but no money”, they said.

The $7 million that Richard Chambers has freed up is unlikely to make any great headway but Property will take what it can get and will have no trouble spending it.

A portfolio and asset management project update in early March shows 148 deferred maintenance jobs are now moving through the pipeline thanks to extra funding – only 10 are for work costing more than $50,000.

Three buckets full

In an interview with Police News, Richard Chambers was adamant property was “firmly among Police’s top priorities”.

“I'm very alert to fact that many of these issues are not new, and that the Police executive has an obligation to be better in this space.”

The commissioner says he puts the property portfolio issues into three buckets – not drip-catching buckets, common-issues buckets.

The first is locations where staff cannot work effectively… “staff are spread around in places”. Think Blenheim, Greymouth, Gore and the Hawke’s Bay dog base, he says.

The second is stations needing long-awaited upgrades – Hamilton, Whakatāne, perhaps Nelson and Whanganui – “they're frankly outdated”.

“The third bucket is general maintenance. This is the one that touches most of our people in one way or another, things that just need fixing or dealing with. They might be small, but they're big to our staff in those locations whether they’re stations or Police homes.”

He emphasised his commitment and recognition of the substandard conditions by using a personal benchmark, admitting he would not put his own family in some of the current police houses.

Thank you and sorry

On Police’s responsibility in terms of its duty of care as an employer and a landlord, the commissioner firstly thanked staff for their patience “over a number of years” and apologised that solutions had not been found far sooner.

“There are sometimes reasons for that… Cyclone Gabrielle, we lost Police properties… that's unplanned and means we do have to reprioritise, but it’s taking too long.”

When told staff wholly agree, with some waiting almost two decades, the commissioner said he was already “very aware of it, staff tell me what they think, and I like that. It does shape my thinking in conversations that I have at a more senior level”.

Police News asked what commitment the commissioner could give members that they were going to see significant progress: “Again, I appreciate their patience, but I also appreciate that patience can wear thin. It’s one of my top priorities among a lot of others, of course, but it is one of the top priorities because it needs investment.

“I am absolutely motivated to ensure that, in my tenure as commissioner, we are much better in terms of being able to address property issues early and not have them linger. Because the longer they linger, the bigger the impact on our people.

“I can't promise everything, but I can prioritise and focus on the things that matter most.”