Funding for Federal Street Police station coming out of Budget bid earmarked for recruitment

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell.

Police have confirmed funding for their new Federal Street station comes out of a Budget bid earmarked for recruitment.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers announced the new Federal Street station on Monday.

They would not share the cost of the move, saying it was commercially sensitive.

Mitchell - who had previously said there was no budget for a new Auckland station - later told Checkpoint it was achieved through reprioritisation by police, but the details of that were operational.

Responding to questions from RNZ, a police spokesperson said the money came from the "Investing in the Frontline" Budget bid.

The initiative saw more than $225 million put towards police, mostly operational spending.

The Budget documents stated this was to "deliver 500 additional constabulary officers from the day the government took office, including additional operating support staff to strengthen policing in our communities".

Police also confirmed discussions were taking place about possible changes to the College Hill station's open hours and service levels.

"Police are engaging in discussions and planning to evaluate the demand for both counters. No decisions about how this impacts College Hill have been made at this stage."

They said the project to open a publicly accessible "counter" and have beat constables at the building at 210 Federal Street was a priority area.

"Aucklanders have told us they don't feel safe in the CBD," they said.

"Currently, the 24/7 public counter for the Auckland City District is located at College Hill, approximately 2km away from the city centre. Relocating the 24/7 public counter will also provide a better service to the community and will enable Police to deploy easily across the city from K Road to Quay Street, enabling Police to have a strong CBD presence."

Police already occupy two storeys of the Federal Street building, and said this would make the move cost effective.

They are expecting to gradually take over the other two floors from January, with plans to have the public counter open 24 hours a day, seven days a week by mid-2025.

Labour also raised concerns about cuts to non-sworn roles, with the party's police spokesperson saying it was sad that the news of the new station had come on the same day as 173 job cuts - resulting from the government's cost-cutting public sector drive - were meant to take effect.

Mitchell had confirmed the cuts taking effect on the 25th, in answer to a written Parliamentary question last month.

Labour's police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said local businesses had been calling for a central Auckland police station for some time, and it would mean more visibility of officers in the CBD, but the timing was sad.

"The local businesses I speak to are pleased to have an increased police presence, but the concern is with the cost of this and if it does mean that frontline police are going to be doing the jobs of non-sworn who have lost their jobs, then that's not going to help reduce crime in the long term.

"Police are no longer attending family violence callouts, we've already seen reductions in victimisations but my concern is young people growing up in homes that are continually seeing family violence and no government response to that.

"Really encouraged by the fact there will be more police visibility. What I would like to see more of is addressing those underlying causes of crime: family violence, mental health, methamphetamine manufacture and distribution. Those are the core things that really cause harm in our community."

In a statement to RNZ, Mitchell again said the staff cuts were an operational matter.

"While this is an operational matter for police, I am assured that this will not affect the frontline or the critical services that support it. This government wants to see resources pushed to the frontline."