Vision NZ candidate Caine Warren helps to get an illegal firearm into the hands of police.
Video / Supplied
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Manurewa Vision NZ candidate Caine Warren has handed in five illegal guns, including a semi-automatic weapon, and ammunition from reformed gang members to police in 24 months.
The majority of the firearms have been given to Warren by gang members wanting tomake positive changes in their lives.
“There’s not a lot of conversation and I don’t want to breach their trust by being an investigator. I’m a mediator,” said Warren, who developed Destiny Church’s Man Up programme.
Caine Warren developed Destiny Church’s Man Up programme.
“The person who handed the weapon to me is an ex-gang member who has gone into a situation where another gang member has the gun. This guy has done the right thing by bringing it to me.
“I am an honest sort of guy and deal with it quickly.
“I took it to the firearms unit who took the weapon and they destroyed it.”
Warren said on one previous occasion, he was made to wait in the police station with two firearms in a bag.
“I walked into the police station and told the receptionist, who was not a police officer, I have firearms in my bag and can I talk to somebody,” he said.
“I had a Glock and a sawn-off shotgun and was told to take a seat for about 10 minutes before an officer came to see me.”
Warren 46, who is married to Destiny Church founder Brian Tamaki’s daughter Jamie, said he is happy to act as a “trusted” intermediary between gangs and police. He will be meeting with the police gang unit in the next fortnight to discuss solutions and how he can help.
“In my community mahi with Man Up, a lot of our gang whānau are looking for chances to make positive changes,” Warren, a father of three, said.
“Man Up is a place where trust is key and our reputation speaks for itself.
“I want to build a relationship with police because of our open door policy, police won’t know some of these gang members are wanting change.”
Caine Warren said he will be meeting with the police gang unit in the next fortnight to discuss solutions and how he can help. Photo / Dean Purcell.
“I was with one of the gang officers for a coffee catch-up and he asked me ‘how can we as police engage with the gangs?’
“I said to him, you have a brand which is not trusted by whānau. We at Man Up do the work on the ground and earn the trust of our whānau.
“Our people would not walk into a police station to hand in a firearm.
“There are not a lot of places where gang whānau can feel safe for them to talk and open up, and hand in illegal firearms.”
Warren has spent 25 years with Destiny Church and said while he was never involved in any gangs, they were part of his childhood.
“I was raised in a rough neighbourhood and gangs were our friends and our whānau friends, but I had strict parents, but I can talk with our whānau without any prejudice as a brother,” he said.
“Gangs are involved in criminal activity but face-to-face when they are away from their peers and group, they open up, talk and share and I guide them on a journey to home. That means present father, responsible parent, provider, the fundamentals of life as a man.”
Warren said the political parties’ attack on gangs is “an attack on whānau”.
“There are always kids involved and if we don’t approach this from a whānau approach, the children become the collateral damage and they pay the biggest price - and that’s on those men who commit crime.”
Warren said he’s enjoying the election campaign and getting out in the community.
Because he is from Destiny Church, invitations he has sent to local churches to speak to their congregations have been denied, but invitations to ethnic faiths have all been approved.
Warren is holding a crime relief hui at the Old Papatoetoe Town Hall on Thursday at 6.30pm.
Joseph Los’e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for 12 years for Te Whānau o Waipareira.
