Most New Zealanders feel ‘more safe’ seeing police on beat patrol, exclusive poll results reveal

• The majority of people feel safer with police on beat patrols, a poll reveals.
• Tamatha Paul’s comments about police presence sparked debate, but 66% feel “more safe”.
• James Ross said the poll shows Paul’s views are “out of touch” with public sentiment.

The majority of New Zealanders feel “more safe” when they see police officers on beat patrols, poll results obtained by the Herald reveal.

It comes after the Green Party’s Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul claimed Wellingtonians did not want to see police officers “everywhere” and, for some people, “it makes them feel less safe”, arguing that their presence suggests “you might not be safe there”.

However, the poll data show just 9% of those in Wellington feel “less safe” when they see police officers on beat patrols. Additionally, 48% of Green Party voters feel “more safe” compared with just 19% who feel less safe and 26% who feel no difference. The rest were unsure.

Paul’s comments last month ignited a political debate about community beat patrols. While the Green MP said all officers did was wait for homeless people to leave their spot before throwing away their property, the likes of Police Minister Mark Mitchell have said the patrols made a major contribution to making Wellington central safer.

Between March 28 and April 1, following reporting of Paul’s comments, the Taxpayers’ Union commissioned Curia to poll on the question: “Does seeing police officers on beat patrols make you feel more or less safe?”

There was a sample of 1000 respondents, contacted via phone and an online panel, with a maximum sampling error of +/- 3.1%. Results for sub-groups, like age, area and party vote have a higher margin of error.

The overall results show 66% of New Zealanders feel “more safe”, 10% feel “less safe”, 20% feel “no difference” and 5% were unsure.

Tamatha Paul on election night after winning Wellington Central. Photo / Azaria Howell

When looking at the results broken down by gender, age, area, ethnicity and party vote, in no instance was there a higher percentage of people who felt “less safe” than “more safe”.

The results show that in Wellington, where Paul is an electorate MP, 66% of people feel “more safe” when they see police on beat patrols, while 9% feel “less safe”, 20% feel “no difference” and the rest are unsure.

That compares to Auckland, where 62% feel “more safe”, 15% feel “less safe” and 19% feel “no difference”. In Christchurch, 53% feel “more safe”, 7% feel “less safe” and 32% feel “no difference”.

A majority of National, Labour, Act and New Zealand First voters feel “more safe” when they see police officers on beat patrols.

In terms of ethnicity, most Europeans, Asians and others feel “more safe”. The results show 46% of Māori feel “more safe”, compared with 20% who feel “less safe” and 26% who feel “no difference”. For Pacific people, 39% feel “more safe”, 10% feel “less safe” and 51% feel “no difference”.

James Ross, the Taxpayers’ Union’s acting head of campaigns, said the poll results showed Paul’s comments were “completely out of touch”.

“Our polling shows an overwhelming majority of Kiwis feel safer with police around. Even among Green voters, a strong plurality say a police presence makes them feel more safe, not less,” Ross said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Police Minister Mark Mitchell were critical of Paul's comments. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Since first making her comments, Paul had done numerous media interviews in which she has highlighted she wants to see services focused on preventing people getting into crime in the first place.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Paul said she had conversations with people in Wellington “who are concerned that beat police officers are taken away from core things that they should be responding to, like domestic violence call-outs, sexual violence call-outs and trading that off for a more visible presence”.

Paul’s comments received significant criticism. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called them “outrageous and insane”, NZ First leader Winston Peters said they suggested “she’s for anarchy” and Act leader David Seymour said police deterred violence.

Labour’s Chris Hipkins initially said they were “stupid”. He later said the Greens had “raised some legitimate issues”.

“Unfortunately, by the time they did that we were in an environment in which we were almost shouting at each other,” Hipkins said.

In response to billboards funded by the Sensible Sentencing Trust that displayed Paul’s picture alongside text saying “Defund the Police”, the Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick this week said her party advocated for “real, evidence-based debate on policy”.

“Are we willing to have a rational, calm discussion about how to genuinely make our communities safer, or will we stay stuck in the knee-jerk shock politics?”

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.