Police will not investigate how many staff were involved in 12,000 additional "irregular" breath tests, saying it would be "impractical".
RNZ revealed last year that about 130 officers were being investigated nationwide after 30,000 alcohol breath tests were "falsely or erroneously recorded".
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) halted $12 million worth of funding until it was satisfied police had met their breath test targets.
NZTA commissioned an independent analysis of breath testing data to try and identify the full scale of falsely recorded tests.
That report was released to RNZ on Friday. The review found there were a total of 42,678 irregular breath tests - 12,000 more than initially suspected.
In response to questions from RNZ, police's director of road policing Superintendent Steve Greally said no additional staff were being investigated.
"Police had already identified specific testing recorded while in a moving vehicle and held those staff accountable.
"The purpose of the additional analysis was to determine the likely extent of irregular testing across static breath testing (i.e. testing recorded while an officer was stationary)."
Greally said the 12,000 additional tests represented the "likely number of irregular tests" based on a statistical analysis agreed to between Police, NZTA and the independent reviewer.
"To identify specific individual officers would have required investigating every officer and every checkpoint, which would have been impractical."
Greally said police had undertaken "extensive reassurance work" across the organisation since the issue was revealed in September last year.
"We also acknowledge the findings from the independent review, and have adopted measures to ensure our practices and data are accurate and reliable.
"Police has strengthened our systems and reinforced the high standards expected of our people. Police expected that given there was a number of falsified mobile breath tests undertaken, that there would also likely be a proportion of falsified static tests."
An NZTA spokesperson earlier told RNZ police had met their targets.
"With the irregular breath tests removed from reporting, a total of 3,178,981 breath screening tests were conducted by Police for the period covering Q1-Q3 of the 2025/26 financial year (1 July 2025 to 31 Mar 2026), exceeding the financial year to date target of 2,475,000 by 703,981 (28 percent above target)."
The agency had authorised $18 million of funding to police.
"NZTA is continuing to work with NZ Police to ensure ongoing confidence in reporting of road policing activity through the Road Policing Investment Programme (RPIP)," the spokesperson said.
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
