The Southern police district is cutting costs. About 25 vehicles are expected to go, fewer staff are to be rostered on public holidays and others are expected to lose on-call allowances.
However, Southern district commander Superintendent Bob Burns said the public should not see any changes in police services.
"We are like many other organisations at this time. We need to do our bit to create savings. However, it will not be at a cost to the level of service we provide to our community."
[comment caption=Will the cost cutting affect the level of service?]Meetings were held last week in Dunedin with the district management team, a group which meets monthly, and a decision is expected on changes by the end of the month.
All police districts are being being asked to cut costs.
Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the cuts would be "equitable" across all districts.
Supt Burns said some administration and support staff would no longer be rostered to work on public holidays.
There would be no change to frontline officers.
About 10% of the district's 256 vehicles would go but no frontline vehicles, or those used by small rural stations, would be lost.
Decisions were still being made about where those reductions would come from.
Vehicles used by day shift staff also being used by night shift staff was one way of reducing the excess.
The management team was also looking at processes around the payment of stand-by allowances to staff, Supt Burns said.
These were paid to staff such as the armed offenders squad, search and rescue, CIB, the serious crash unit, photographers, dog handlers and after-hours staff at non-24-hour stations.
"We have identified positions where staff have received allowances for lengthy periods of time and have not been called out."
It is understood some of these roles will no longer work on-call and instead will be rostered on.
Positions that involve responding to emergencies will be excluded.
Police Association representatives are meeting in Wellington this week to discuss the impact of the cuts.
Mr O'Connor said there was a "whole pile of things happening".
