In August 2010, New Zealand Police embarked on an ambitious programme of change that has revolutionised the way we work. Known as Policing Excellence, this programme has made Police more mobile and visible than ever before and put preventing crime and meeting the needs of victims at the centre of everything we do.

Under Policing Excellence, we set ourselves ambitious targets to meet by June 30 this year - a 13 percent reduction in crime, a four percent increase in prevention activities and a 19 percent drop in non-traffic prosecutions.

We exceeded each of those targets. Crime has decreased by 18.6 per cent, prevention activities have increased by 5.5 percent and non-traffic prosecutions are down by 39.2 percent. We have also freed up more than 500,000 hours of frontline patrol time every year by issuing our staff with smartphones and tablets that allow them to spend more time on the street and less time behind a desk.

Although Policing Excellence ended on June 30, we are not resting on our laurels. We are now embarking on Policing Excellence: The Future, which will build on our success in preventing crime, reducing victimisation and keeping our communities safe.

As with Policing Excellence, the ideas we get from our frontline staff will be a key part of the success of this next phase. That's why over the past couple of months, a dedicated team from Police National Headquarters, helped by staff from the Districts and elsewhere, has put an enormous amount of time and effort into asking our frontline how we can get even better at what we do.

This work has included workshops with staff around the country, focusing on a wide range of themes and attended by 550 Police staff and 50 staff from our partner agencies.

We challenged our staff to come up with suggestions on how we can improve, and they have responded with creativity and enthusiasm.

Their ideas have been collated and categorised by our PNHQ team and last week, Police's senior leadership team started going through them as part of an intensive two-day workshop on Policing Excellence: The Future.

We promised we would listen to our staff, and they have certainly given us plenty to think about.

I hope to tell you more about Policing Excellence: The Future and what it will mean for the communities we serve in the next few weeks.

Until next time, keep safe.

Source: New Zealand Police.