Armed Offenders Squad callouts in the Bay of Plenty last year were up 68 per cent on 2017 - but political parties are at odds over why.
Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller said the data showed the Government had not taken gun crime "seriously enough" and allowed it to get out of control - and that the National Party would give police more powers to tackle gangs.
Police Minister Chris Hipkins, however, said the figures reflected the Labour-led Government's lower tolerance for gun and gang crime than the previous National government.
Police, meanwhile, point primarily to changing trends in how the Armed Offender Squad (AOS) are deployed for the shift.
Police in New Zealand are generally unarmed, but specially trained AOS members respond to situations where firearms are present or threatened. They are also used in some high-risk pre-planned operations.
Peaking in 2020 with 240 local AOS callouts, there were 176 in the Bay of Plenty last year - up 68 per cent from 106 in 2017.
Nationally, there were 1694 callouts last year, up from 1034 in 2017. Callouts were up in all police regions, with some doubling 2017 tallies.
The data was obtained by National police spokesman Mark Mitchell via written parliamentary questions.
Muller told the Bay of Plenty Times he thought the Government had been too defensive.
"Rather than trying to nickel and dime over whether the data reflect a scale of whether it's a crisis or not, they should simply respond to what the community expects," Muller said.
"Instead of trying to deflect the politics of the issue, they need to be focused on actual powers for the police to get in the face of these guys and make life uncomfortable.
"Frankly, I don't think they've taken it seriously enough."
National has said it would give police four new tools to make their jobs easier. They were:
• Ban gang patches in public.
• Give police non-association powers to prevent gang members from communicating and planning criminal activity.
• Allow police to issue dispersal notices where gang members come together in public to intimidate, threaten and sometimes assault members of the public.
• Bring in firearms protection orders with warrantless search powers.
It has previously been reported that the orders would make it illegal for a person to access firearms or enter premises where firearms were present.
The Labour-led Government has introduced legislation to bring in firearms protection orders that would make it illegal for "high-risk people" - including gang members - to own firearms.
Muller said he always had been a fan of banning gang patches but he "particularly liked" the thought of warrantless search powers.
"It is quite a significant step forward but essentially, if you're a member of a gang and the police have a sense there's activity going on or ill gains have occurred, they have the right to search premises. I think that's a good step forward.
"You need to keep the pressure on these guys to make it uncomfortable for them to do what they do."
In February last year, police launched Operation Tauwhiro to disrupt and prevent firearms-related violence by gangs and organised crime groups. Police have since launched Operation Cobalt, which targets unlawful behaviour and intimidation by gang members.
NZ Police Association president Chris Cahill said there was a "major problem" with firearms in New Zealand and AOS callouts had increased but there were problems with the data. In 2017, callouts were more traditional with a regular occurrence being a police task that later needed AOS to assist.
"For example, if [officers] were off to do a warrant for drugs and there's intelligence there are firearms there, in the past detectives have probably just put a firearm on their hip and done that themselves and now they'll call out an AOS component to assist. Those have been included in these statistics," Cahill said.
"In other words, we're deploying a lot more AOS-trained staff to mitigate the risk at the front end rather than create incidents that then require an urgent response.
"The reason [callouts] are so much higher is a change in the deployment model but it does also reflect the increase in available firearms and the use of firearms by criminals."
Cahill thought National's tools were worth considering and the time to "explore more" for crime solutions had come.
"We've always been [hesitant] about whether [banning] patches would work but I think the reality is everywhere you go in New Zealand, the public is faced with gang members on the street wearing their patches and it's intimidating.
"I think part of being safe is feeling safe and if there are measures to remove patches from the public... I think it's got merit."
Cahill said criminals still had firearms access, most appearing to be sourced through people buying on their behalf.
In a written statement, Hipkins said the increased focus on gang-related activities meant AOS-trained staff supported pre-planned activities more often.
"[The data] does not indicate higher levels of gun crime; rather it's a sign this Government has less tolerance for illegal guns and criminal gang behaviour than the previous National government," Hipkins said.
"We have done more to combat gun crime in five years than National ever did, including banning most semi-automatic weapons, targeting illegal firearms... and actually progressing firearms prohibition orders, which is something the previous government failed to deliver."
The number of local frontline police had grown by 16.4 per cent since 2017, Hipkins said - an extra 108 police over and above attrition.
In a statement, Bay of Plenty Police District commander Superintendent Tim Anderson said the focus on disrupting gang-related activities through the likes of Operation Cobalt resulted in an increased need for AOS callouts due to the "higher risk" posed to general duties officers.
"Additionally, reassurance patrols including AOS personnel are conducted following high-profile violent offending incidents to provide community reassurance and increase the availability of tactically trained staff to support the frontline," Anderson said.
"Sometimes these reassurance patrols run 24-7, and each patrol is noted as a separate AOS deployment."
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