National leader Simon Bridges said that Police need to be backed and offered the tools to take on the gangs. Photo / Paul Taylor
National leader Simon Bridges said that Police need to be backed and offered the tools to take on the gangs. Photo / Paul Taylor
National leader Simon Bridges says a strong National candidate will have a good chance of unseating Napier MP and Police Minister Stuart Nash as the city's gang problem deepens.
Bridges along with the rest of the National Party met in Havelock North over the weekend for their annual party caucus.
He told Hawke's Bay Today in a sit down chat on Monday that the impact of gangs on Hawke's Bay had escalated.
Even his home region of Tauranga was struggling to deal with them, he said.
Bridges said the best way to deal with the gang issue was to disrupt the system and make a real stand.
"We can't be soft, we have to disrupt the gangs, we have to make arrests and be on them every single day."
Bridges said police need to be backed and offered the tools to take on the gangs. He said a similar force is needed to the New South Wales unit known as Strike Force Raptor.
"Police are on the right course in dealing with the gangs but they have told us privately that they don't feel that support and backing," he said.
"They are being told to follow a tag and release approach but these are big, fat, terrible, juicy fish actually that don't taste very good.
"We want to make it quite clear to these thugs that violence on the streets around family and whanau and people going about their lawful activities, there is zero tolerance for."
Official numbers recorded by Government show the number of gang members in the Eastern District has increased by 31.5 per cent since the last election.
There are now 1053 gang members in the region.
According to official numbers recorded by Government they have seen the number of gang members increase by 31.5 per cent in the Eastern District since the last election. Photo / File
Bridges said as well as Strike Force Raptor there needed to be a strong focus on preventing the problem to begin with.
"It's not all about getting tougher on the issue, we need to get in and give better education and skills to not take a life in the gang, which also means changing it at the other end for those coming out of prison and doing our best to make sure they learn new skills to get away from the gangs."
He said that getting the prison numbers down is something that everyone wants but not if it makes the streets more dangerous.
"If it's a choice between fewer people in prison and less safety on the streets or more people in prison and safer streets I'll choose the latter every time."
Nash said what the Labour government had done over this term meant it could confidently say "we are the true party of law and order".
Police numbers in the Eastern District (114 extra officers on top of 423) have gone up by 27 per cent since the last election, the highest increase nationwide.
Nash said that alot of the work was done around Hawke's Bay, getting more cops on the streets, as well as exploring other avenues, outside of Police, to help the region's young people get into jobs rather than gangs.
Bridges said National will be making a strong approach for the Napier seat with a candidate to be announced soon as he feels the region isn't "getting what it deserves" from Nash.
He said they felt they can support the region better and help get people into jobs, minimise the people on the benefit and help improve the region's infrastructure, making the example of making the expressway between Hastings and Napier four lanes.
