A further 70 police officers are being added to community patrol teams across the country while another 77 will operate through police’s national and regional gang disruption units.
The allocation of officers, confirmed by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster today, forms part of the Government’s promise to train an extra 500 police by November next year.
Coster today welcomed the additional officers who would boost the community patrol teams which he claimed had achieved good results in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Police Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming spoke to media in Wellington after the announcement.
Luxon said the crackdown on gangs by the police and the Government had been “very obvious”. He said gangs drove a fifth of violent crime and he made “no apologies” for going after them.
On the Gangs Bill, Luxon said concerns from opposition police spokesperson Ginny Andersen that the law turned the police into the “closet” police, in reference to the gang patch ban, were a “load of rubbish”, and said there was a period of consultation regarding the proposed ban on gang patches in the home.
“I want police to have the maximum amount of tools ... we are going to harass gangs,” he said.
Mitchell said police were preparing for the new legislation, including making sure staff understood the new laws and getting trained in the new techniques they needed to enforce them.
On the risk of inflaming tensions with this new moves, Mitchell said the police were very used to dealing with gangs who were doing a lot of work to prepare for the new legislation.
Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming said over the last year, police had been doing a lot of “validation” of the national gang list.
McSkimming said the tactical response model would focus on the most harmful, violent offenders.
The addition of 70 officers increased the overall community patrol team to 160 officers across the country.
Sixty-three were based in the Auckland police districts with 21 in the CBD. There were 18 in Waikato, 17 in Wellington and Bay of Plenty, 11 in Northland, 10 in Canterbury, 8 in Central, 7 in Eastern, 4 in Tasman and 4 in Southern.
Of the 77 officers within the gang disruption units, 14 were in Auckland and groups of 10 or less officers were situated in other regions. Five staff formed the national unit.
Coster promised the gang disruption workforce would further increase through “repurposing of some existing positions, once a full demand profile is completed”.
Parliament today was expected to pass its Gangs Bill, which included the controversial gang patch ban in public places.
“The Gang Disruption Units will be focused on gang enforcement, and in particular enforcing the new gangs legislation when it comes into effect,” Coster said.
On Sunday, Luxon and Police Minister Mark Mitchell cited Auckland’s unit while celebrating new data showing assaults in Auckland CBD had decreased by 22%.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.