In response to the changing operating environment, the New Zealand Police established a change
management program called the Comprehensive Approach to Police Excellence. This program
became known as Policing Excellence and included eleven separate initiatives designed to facilitate
the transfer of policing activities from reactive to preventative policing. It was intended that the
implementation of the program would result in the reduction of victimization and offending and
would improve community safety. The premise was that police would be better able to manage
future demand through the reallocation of resources and the realization of the program’s benefits.
By the middle of 2014, the program had achieved a 13 percent reduction in recorded crime and a
19 percent reduction in prosecutions. This article examines the impact that the program has had
on the delivery of police services and the level of crime in New Zealand.