The outcome of the West Coast police review, which was due next week, now appears to be at least a month away.
Police have also revealed they don't know how many people turned up to their consultation meetings on the review, because they didn't count them.
They've refused to release submissions on the review.
Police held three consultation meetings in Westport, two each in Greymouth and Hokitika and one in Karamea on the proposed new policing model.
The changes would centralise staff in Greymouth, remove frontline staff from Karamea and Ross, and cut community and youth aid positions across the region.
Westport News asked police under the Official Information Act (OIA) how many people had attended each meeting.
Tasman district commander Superintendent Karyn Malthus said police did not have the information.
"It was not deemed necessary to count numbers as these were informal drop-in sessions held over several hours in which individuals could come in and chat to a range of police staff."
Westport News sought a copy of the 241 review submissions, also under the OIA.
Ms Malthus declined the request "to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through free and frank expression of opinions to officers and employees".
She said police had yet to consider the submissions and didn't expect to finish doing so until the end of the month.
Westport News resubmitted the OIA request, seeking the submissions after the decision on West Coast police services.
The response from Tasman District communications manager Barbara Dunn indicated the March 31 date for the decision was unlikely and an announcement was at least a month away.
West Coast leaders have criticised the transparency of the police consultation process. "It is being run as a police 'operation' rather than as an inclusive two-way dialogue with the communities affected," they said in open letters to the Minister of Police, Judith Collins, earlier this month.
The area hardest hit, Karamea, which would lose its sole police officer, had had the least consultation, they said.
Key public meetings in Westport had been notified just hours prior to their start and set at times that excluded many people.
The News has previously reported that the Buller District Council organised public meetings in Westport and Karamea because the council was unhappy with the drop-in format.
About 200 people attended the Westport public meeting, while just a handful attended a police consultation meeting held at the same time.
The Karamea public meetings attracted around 160 people and about 300 people respectively.
The open letters noted that Ms Malthus, who commissioned the review, and Inspector Jeff Penno, who wrote it, did not attend any consultation meetings.
The Coast leaders wanted the minister to instruct police bosses to test the proposed West Coast policing model before implementing it.
Ms Collins said she would not interfere in police operational decisions.
- Lee Scanlon of the Westport News
