Tensions are running high following a spate of gang-related violence in Ōpōtiki, and a highly visible gang funeral in the Bay of Plenty town earlier this year.
“We know that there are gang tensions in Ōpōtiki. We know that there was a gang-related homicide there a couple of months ago and the Mongrel Mob turned up and took the town under siege,” Mitchell told Checkpoint on Wednesday.
“The police need to have proactive tools that they can get out there and they can stop and turn over gang members, and search them and search their vehicles and take firearms - not wait for a 20-year-old female to be shot in a drive-by shooting or for someone’s home to be shot up by gangs and drive-by shootings.”
After the latest shooting, police were granted additional search powers through the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Act. The temporary warrant enabled police to freely search vehicles and properties owned by suspected gang members.
While police are able to get urgent warrants “in a matter of hours”, Mitchell said that was “reactive” and police needed to be proactive. The current firearms prohibition laws were “very weak”, he said, and “meaningless”.
As for gang activity online, Mitchell said he had a meeting with “the CEO of Meta” on Wednesday to discuss enforcement. It was not clear if he meant Mark Zuckerberg or a local executive (Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and messaging services).
“There’s going to be a very clear signal sent in this country now that we are not going to tolerate gang patches, gang insignia and what they’re used for and what they signify - and that is quite simply the intimidation of members of the public.”
Asked what if the insignia was literally tattooed on, Mitchell said further legislation would be passed banning that.
“The Australians passed a law whereby now gang members have to wake up in the morning and they have to apply foundation to cover offensive tattoos that they have put on their faces to again, try to intimidate members of the public.
“So if the gangs think that they’re going to get around a ban on gang patches by having swastikas and offensive tattoos on their faces, then we’ll take action to curb that.”
In 2021, when laws against gang tattoos were passed in Western Australia, police there also said gang members could wear makeup to hide them. The first convictions were handed out earlier this year.
The Western Australia law also gave police the power to order gathered gang members to disperse and not associate with one another for the following seven days, just as Mitchell has proposed.
Asked how that would be enforced, Mitchell said police would “have to make arrests until the gang members understand that we’re serious”.
With the new government not yet formed, Mitchell said he had “absolutely not” yet locked in the job as police minister.
