Auckland ram-raids: Most of the culprits aged under 15, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says

Most of the ram-raiders tormenting Auckland retailers are younger than 15, the country's top cop has revealed.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the teenagers' involved in the smash and grab robberies were not "productively engaged".

His comments suggest that even if the culprits are caught, police may be unable to prosecute them due to their age.

There has been a spate of ram-raids and burglaries across the city leaving retailers and communities feeling unsafe.

"The people who are involved in these ram raids, many of them are under 15. We need to look seriously at why these kids are not productively engaged," Coster told AM this morning.

Coster denied that changes made to the police pursuit policy in 2020 have led to an increase in ram raids.

However, he revealed that "fine-tuned" changes would be made to the policy.

Coster also acknowledged that gang violence is currently elevated.

He said New Zealand is dealing with the consequences of relaxed gun controls over past decades following a spree of drive-by shootings in Auckland last week.

He said a variety of guns were being used in the recent shootings, ranging from high-power rifles to less serious firearms.

"In the end, they are all dangerous," said Coster.

When asked, he couldn't say how many criminals had guns.

He said police's long-term goal is to tighten up gun control but said this was going to take some time.

"The violence in gangs comes and goes with time, and we're in an elevated time at the moment," he said.

He said the best indication of how many gang members there are in New Zealand suggest there are 8000.

"What's a gang anyway, we've got teenagers grouping up calling themselves a gang, is that something we should be worried about?" he said.

Rising tension between the Tribesmen gang and its former feeder gang the Killer Beez was linked to a number of shootings in Auckland last week, with seven shooting incidents across the city on one night.

Coster told RNZ Checkpoint this week that police are still looking for a variety of weapons in relation to this spate of recent drive-by shootings.

"We cannot sustain this kind of violence in our communities and police is cracking down on these two groups, sending a clear message about the way they need to behave."

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster stands by decision to make changes to the police pursuit policy. Photo / Dean Purcell

There were a range of theories about why the tension had flared but he could not say the intelligence he had was 100 per cent accurate.

"I have no reason to believe this relates to drugs, I believe it relates to long-running tensions, probably at a personal level between these groups, but I'm not going to go into detail because I only have rumour and speculation on that front.

"I can tell you no reason justifies the kind of violence that we have seen in our communities."

At the weekend police said they had recovered four guns and 250 rounds of ammunition following last week's shootings.

This year's Budget set aside $208 million over four years to establish a new Firearms Business Unit within police to oversee the register and other ongoing Arms Act legislative changes.

Police now had the legislation and funding to put in place firearms regulation that would make the community safe, he said.

"It's going to take some time for that to have the effect, in the meantime we invite anyone who has information about firearms that are illegally held to come forward so that we can get those firearms back."