Position description
Position
Chief Executive and Commissioner
Department
New Zealand Police
Context
The New Zealand Police (Police) is the government’s key frontline response agency with
staff in large and small communities all over New Zealand and also in post-conflict nation
building roles overseas.
Police is currently consolidating the Policing Excellence strategy, which puts increased
emphasis on crime prevention,1 focusing on victim support and on community policing.
Policing Excellence is underpinned by a new management approach and new tools designed
to enable purposeful deployment and active management of performance.
Justice sector agencies are working together to manage the criminal justice pipeline as a
whole to achieve the Better Public Services targets 7 and 8 for reducing the overall crime
rate by 15%, violent crime by 20% and reoffending by 25% by 2017. Police plays a key role
and is expected to continue to be a strong leader and participant in the justice sector. The
justice sector needs to work closely with social sector agencies, particularly to reduce abuse
and neglect of children, intervene early with potential young offenders, deal effectively with
family violence and manage offender release to reduce the probability of reoffending.
Police is still working to embed the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into
Police Conduct which reported in 2007. The report noted it would take some time to
implement the culture change recommended by the report. Accordingly, Police has been
working to address the recommendations over a 10 year period.
Police is also dealing with new types of crime, including cyber crime, and plays a key role in
the NZ intelligence community. Civilian staff feature prominently in these areas, which
require a wide range of skills.
Police staff numbers and budget have grown steadily for most of the past decade, but Police
is now being expected, along with the rest of the Justice sector, to live within baselines. To
achieve this Police will need to take a modern and flexible approach to management of staff,
and a sustainable finance strategy to deliver against its operational and workforce plans.
Key external relationships
Government and Parliament:

Formal accountabilities to the Minister of Police, Prime Minister and Cabinet

Law and Order Parliamentary Select Committee

Independent Police Conduct Authority
Sector:
1

Justice and social sectors in respect of the criminal justice pipeline, community
policing, crime prevention and protection of vulnerable children

Defence and intelligence sectors. Police is a key contributor to the NZ intelligence
community. Police are also regularly deployed overseas to assist with post-conflict
See also the Prevention First sub-strategy
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nation-building.

Transport and border sectors: approximately 20% of Police’s budget is from the
National Land Transport Fund for road safety work and Police also play a critical
role in border protection.
Communities and the public:

Local government and community organisations, including NGOs working with
and/or representing victims, offenders and vulnerable members of society

Emergency management sector, including central and local government and
voluntary search and rescue bodies

Organisations representing the interests of Māori/iwi

Organisations representing the interests of Pasifika peoples and other ethnic groups
Performance profile
Legal accountabilities
Under the Policing Act 2008, the Commissioner of Police is accountable to the Minister of
Police for:





carrying out the functions and duties of the Police; and
the general conduct of the Police; and
the effective, efficient, and economical management of the Police; and
tendering advice to the Minister and other Ministers of the Crown; and
giving effect to any lawful ministerial directions.
The Commissioner is not accountable to and must act independently of any Minister of the
Crown regarding the maintenance of order and enforcement of the law in relation to any
individual or group of individuals; the investigation and prosecution of offences; and
decisions about individual Police employees.
In those functions where the Commissioner is accountable to the Minister of the Police,
he/she will be expected, as Chief Executive, to meet the requirements of the State Sector
Act and the Public Finance Act as if Police were a public service department. Relevant chief
executive accountabilities under the State Sector Act include:

responsiveness on matters relating to the collective interests of government

the stewardship of the organisation, including of its medium and long-term
sustainability, organisational health, capability, and capacity to offer free and frank
advice to successive Governments

the stewardship of the assets and liabilities that are used by or relate to the
organisation, and the legislation administered by it

giving effect to whole of government requirements on matters such as procurement,
property management, ICT, security and privacy

the performance of the functions and duties and the exercise of the powers of the
organisation

the tendering of free and frank advice to Ministers

the integrity and conduct of the organisation’s employees.
The Chief Executive and Commissioner of Police is currently responsible for leading
approximately 12,000 staff, of whom almost three-quarters are sworn police officers, and
managing Vote expenditure of about $1.5 billion. Key areas of Police work include:
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Crime prevention and maintenance of public order

Response management for incidents, accidents and emergencies

Crime investigation and resolution, including support to the court process
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
Road policing.
Further details of Police’s work are at www.police.govt.nz
Medium-term priorities
The Chief Executive and Commissioner of Police will be required to:

deliver on the Better Public Services results for reducing crime and reoffending,
including consolidation of the Policing Excellence model and working with other
agencies in the justice and social sectors

work with the social sector to contribute to other BPS result areas, particularly reducing
assaults on children and helping young people to stay in education

modernise the police workforce, through among other things:

Security Clearance

leading a change to a more open and inclusive culture to support the prevention
focus and improve engagement with other agencies

using organisational development and workforce strategies together with future
collective agreement negotiations to deliver a world class police force with modern
employment terms and conditions

using recruitment, retention and promotion to better reflect within the Police
workforce the communities they serve, in particular women, Māori and other ethnic
minorities
plan for and deliver effective and efficient financially sustainable policing.
Appointment will be subject to a New Zealand Government Top Secret Special security
clearance. New Zealand citizenship desirable
Person profile
Leadership in the Public
Service context
Although Police is not a public service department under the State Sector Act, the Chief
Executive and Commissioner will be expected to provide leadership in the same way as
public service department chief executives. Chief executives are required to collaborate
within their sector and across the system towards the overall goal of a system of world
class, professional State Services, serving the government of the day and meeting the
needs of all New Zealanders. Chief executives are responsible for stewardship of their
organisation, including information and privacy stewardship, legislation administered, assets
and liabilities of the Crown and increased coordination across the system.
Better Public Services was developed to focus State Services on delivering better public
service results. To achieve the results agencies, including Police, are required to work
across agency boundaries to achieve the targets agreed with Ministers. The chief
executives of justice sector agencies, including the Commissioner, are collectively
accountable to deliver on justice sector results.
Person profile
In terms of experience, we are looking for a Chief Executive and Commissioner with strong,
credible experience, with a good understanding of the role and work of Police. Police
experience or similar experience will be required. In addition relevant experience could
include:

Very senior level leadership of a large, widely distributed, operational organisation
providing some of its services 24/7

Leadership of durable culture change in an organisation

Demonstrated experience achieving high performance and tangible results
In terms of personal qualities, the Chief Executive and Commissioner will need:
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complete personal and professional integrity

ability to develop and communicate a strategic vision

ability to collaborate with others

a good understanding of NZ culture, history and constitutional background

ability to work effectively in the New Zealand public service environment.
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Position specific
competencies
The descriptors below summarise the aspects of a successful leader the Chief Executive
and Commissioner, New Zealand Police, will need to demonstrate, based on Police’s
current situation. The full Leadership Success Profile setting out the behavioural
competencies expected from chief executives is located at
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/senior-leader-development
Deliver results through
vision
Communicate a compelling and sustainable vision for the future
Set a coherent and achievable strategy, aligned with system and sector priorities with
challenging objectives and success measures
Build a collaborative vision with other government and non-government agencies in the
justice and social sectors
Deliver results through
people
Ensure the workforce has the capacity and diversity to deliver on its vision and strategy,
proactively recognise and remedy any diversity and capability gaps or shortfalls
Identify, nurture and mobilise leadership and management talent in individuals, planning
effectively for succession in key posts and sharing talent across the system
Recognise and reward results, manage non-performance consistently
Deliver results through
execution
Create and align structures, systems and teams to address current and future challenges
and to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of delivery models
Manage performance and efficiency
Drive performance and a commitment to excellence in pursuit of strategic outcomes
Utilise high quality, timely and well-understood performance information to track and
manage performance and risk
Sustain ongoing continuous improvement and reform of the current system
Deliver results through self
Model state sector standards of integrity and trust at a personal, agency, sector and system
level.
Inspire respect, trust, loyalty and confidence of staff and stakeholders
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