Financial Review Debate — New Zealand Police

In the brief time we have available, I want to make a couple of remarks concerning the funding of the New Zealand Police. I am pleased that the Minister of Police is in the chair because it was and still is that Minister who makes a great play of talking tough and saying she will back the police. [Interruption] However, those members do not like this debate because, unlike a select committee, they cannot shut this debate down, which the chair of the Law and Order Committee, sitting over there, has tried to do in that committee.

There is a worrying trend within the New Zealand Police and it is not about the police officers themselves. The trend is that this Minister, after talking tough, making a large amount of promises, grinning like a Cheshire cat, and having a wee giggle, as she does, has embarked on a series of cuts that are evidenced in the documentation that is before us—[Interruption]—and they do not like it. It was this Minister who said she would put 600 new police on the streets by the end of 2011, when we know that although that sounds good in theory, in practice approximately 380 of those 600 officers were already promised. Before she says that one has to follow promises with funding, I say that those officers were already funded and being trained under the previous Labour Government.

We know the obsession the Minister has with her own patch of Counties-Manukau, and she and her Prime Minister celebrated the 200th graduate police officer to go into Counties-Manukau. OK, that is fair enough, because we know that Counties-Manukau has some unique crime and violence problems, but here is the rub: we found out, courtesy of an Official Information Act request and one district commander Mike Bush, that the Minister has, according to her own departmental papers, provided only 25—she now says it is 43—police cars for the so-called 300 police she is putting into Counties-Manukau. District commander Bush made a very interesting point. He said that that is one vehicle for every 12 officers. The Minister says it is now 43, but let us not quibble. Even if it is 43, it is far less than the normal ratio. Of course, district commander Mike Bush comments in the Official Information Act memo, this ratio of 1:12 is “considerably lower” than the current ratio, which ranges from 1:4 to 1:6. This is not a bureaucrat; this is a senior police officer who is probably the first at district commander level to question the rationale for this policy.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: We get our policemen out on the job.

Those members interject and fluff about over there, but the member for West Coast - Tasman, who has lost cars in his patch, will not stand up and protest that in this Chamber. That member will not stand up for his local police force on the West Coast; he hides away.

I also say to the Minister that she is a Minister who—according to district commander Cliff in Canterbury, who has verified it publicly in documentation that has been tabled—along with this Government, required a $21 million cut in police resources. Firstly, it manifested in 340 cars, or 10 percent, of the vehicle fleet going. The Minister said: “It won’t be front-line vehicles. It’ll be things like vans.” Even in my patch, the community cop now has to drive the police prison van around because the van did not go but his squad car has gone. The youth aid officer in Kaiapoi has to get a pool car, when she can get it, to chase down young offenders.

So what we have—

💬 Sandra Goudie: Oh rubbish!

The member says it is rubbish. I invite that member, who chairs the Law and Order Committee, to go to the West Coast, to go to the Kaiapoi Police Station, to go to the Rangiora Police Station, and to go up and talk to district commander Mike Bush in Counties-Manukau and ask him why he said what he said. I do not think district commander Bush is a liar. I think he is a man of his word, I think he is an honourable person, and, unlike the Minister of Police and the politicians in this Chamber, he is a front-line, trained, professional crime-fighting police officer. If anybody knows about the resources that police need, it would be that district commander. The Minister laughs and looks likes the political version of a Cheshire cat; she is good at that. She stands up to say “Oh, Mr Chairman”, but she does not match her rhetoric with resources. The question I have for this Minister is why, if the police had all these resources, did they not come to us and ask us—

It is really great to be the Minister of Police and to remind members that in the last Budget the police were huge winners, getting almost $300 million extra. But there was not a word from the Opposition on that point. I say to the member who just resumed his seat, Clayton Cosgrove, that one thing our front-line police officers do not like is having their names used in this Chamber and brought into political debate. I ask him to kindly respect the fact that those officers are embarrassed by his using their names, and they would rather he did not do that. And, quite frankly, they also dispute many of the things he says about them.

One of the points we can note is that the New Zealand Police is the best police force in the world. There was not a word from the Opposition about the fact that a UMR Research poll shows that for the first time 78 percent of people polled thought that the police were fantastic and that they do a good job. That is the highest rating ever; a 7-point increase in 1 year. The Government had something to do with it in terms of funding, leadership, and direction and backing for the New Zealand police. But the majority of the credit should go to our police officers, who everyday put their lives on the line for us. I would like to give them that credit, and I want to tell members about some of the very good stories from the New Zealand police during the last financial year.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: Tell us!

I thank Mr Auchinvole; I certainly will.

For a start, we recognise that there is a problem with organised crime. Police have achieved the best results in 10 years for the National Cannabis and Crime Operation. Over 800 searches led to 1,175 offenders being identified and over 140,000 plants being destroyed, and New Zealanders were protected from some $379 million worth of socio-economic harm.

Three major operations—Operation Viper, Operation Vito, and Operation Web—smashed serious drug operations. In September 2008 Operation Viper led to more than 70 people being arrested for serious drug-dealing offending. Operation Vito led to 10 arrests in relation to the manufacture and supply of methamphetamine, and three clandestine laboratories were dismantled.

The whole-of-Government approach is the only way to fight organised crime, and it was very satisfying to see the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand, or OFCANZ, carry out its first operation last year. This signalled that New Zealand has become a more hostile environment for organised crime groups. This Government was very pleased to be able to get through the House and put in place legislation such as the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act and the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act, which empower police to hit crime bosses where it hurts.

Police have continued to invest in staff and equipment that reflects international best practice. New digital radios in the Wellington region were the culmination of 4 years’ work, and the safety of officers has been greatly improved. [Interruption] The Opposition may think that is nothing to get excited about, but this Government does. Auckland and Canterbury are on track to have digital radio this year.

The national Taser roll-out is under way, thank goodness, following the Government’s decision to back the police and give them an extra $10 million in the last Budget. Early data shows that in 90 percent of violent instances, the situations are resolved when Tasers are presented, without any physical force or even the use of the Taser.

💬 Chris Auchinvole: Really?

Yes—amazingly! This Government is serious about giving the police the right tools to do their job safely.

In late 2008 police started training staff in world-leading investigative interviewing techniques. More than 3,700 staff have now been trained. The electronic crime laboratory has led internationally ground-breaking work on the remote examination of electronic devices. This allows police anywhere in the country to examine seized computers without those computers being forensically compromised.

We look forward to the effects of the innovative approaches to crime and crime reporting such as the Crimestoppers service, which was launched in October last year. Results have already shown that in the first 4 months the service took nearly 2,200 calls, and police have advised me that around 40 percent of those calls led to the detection of a crime.

There was also success with road policing in the first part of 2009. Operation Tahi targeted driver behaviour in the South Island on State Highway 1 for 5 months. High levels of cooperation between the various districts led to an estimated 38 fewer fatal-injury crashes. This is a good-news story for New Zealand police, but there has not been a word from the Opposition. Unfortunately, it is left to the Government to say that we are very pleased about the wonderful work of the New Zealand police.

I will take a fairly short call in the debate on the financial review of the New Zealand Police. When the Commissioner of Police appeared before the Law and Order Committee it was very gratifying to hear him acknowledge that using sworn police personnel to run speed cameras was a waste of resources. The commissioner came close to suggesting that traffic enforcement should be separated back out from what I would refer to as true policing. But he later issued a statement making it clear that that was not his intent. However, the commissioner agreed at that hearing that having six police running a checkpoint at 9 a.m. looking for warrants and registrations in the village near where I live was not a good use of resources. The commissioner noted that they must have been doing something other than that. Well, only they would know, but I doubt it.

I note that the speed camera van that is regularly parked in the village outside the school—and no one disagrees that it should be there—is manned by a man who looks like a retired policeman but who, in fact, told me he is an active sworn policeman. Surely he could be better deployed somewhere other than sitting in a van outside the Kaukapakapa School making sure that no one smashes the camera. I encourage the Commissioner of Police to look further at deploying resources better to fight crime rather than to look after speed cameras.

Policing in rural areas is a major problem. There must be a balance between the low population density and, therefore, relatively lower crime rate, and the shortage of resources. Obviously the police must be concentrated where most of the crime takes place. However, there is an old saying: “Build it and they will come.” In my view, that works the opposite way, and I will alter that truism slightly and say: “If they know they are not there, they will come also.” In the 4 years or so that I have lived in the country I have noted a marked increase in wheel skids all over the road every morning in and around our area. That is because the hoons know that the nearest manned police station at night is in Ōrewa, which is 15 kilometres away. So because the police are not there, they come and make mayhem.

I have spoken in this Chamber before of our local general store and liquor store owner, Willie, and his family, who are hard-working New Zealand Chinese. The shop opens at 7 a.m. this time of year and does not close until 7.30 p.m. One would think Willie and his family deserve their rest, but he has to be out on the street at 2 a.m. most nights, especially on weekends, to deter the hoons who are doing doughnuts all over the road. The hoons do that because they know there is no policeman within 15 kilometres. What would happen if the little swine were to confront him? If Willie and his family were beaten up, it would take half an hour or more for an ambulance to reach him. In my view, the very successful community constable experiment should be extended more into rural areas. If money needs to be found, then we say it should be taken from the highway patrol car that is regularly to be found sitting at the Silverdale on-ramp looking for the dangerous speedster doing 120 kilometres an hour up a brand new motorway, which has presumably been built to the highest standards; from the highway policeman whom I used to encounter lying in wait at 5 a.m. on the straights north of Ngātea for some unsuspecting motorist doing 120 kilometres an hour on a deserted straight section of highway; or from the two policemen who once apprehended me on the southern motorway in Manakau City at 4 a.m. It is simply not credible that the best use of police time at 4 a.m. in Manukau City is for the police to sit on the side of the motorway hoping to catch someone driving an old Jag at 120 kilometres an hour.

The Commissioner of Police has said that the public are in favour by a large margin of having the traffic function remain with the police. Well, I would be interested in the evidence for that. “Rebalancing” is the current buzzword. In rural areas at least the residents believe that there should be a rebalancing away from handing out traffic tickets on country roads and towards establishing a police presence in rural areas.

Report noted.

Ministry of Education