Gang Intelligence Centre 'obstructed' by public attention, political debate

Friday, 15 October 2021

A “refresh” of the Gang Intelligence Centre is almost complete after reports it failed to fulfil its potential. Pictured is a large funeral procession across Auckland earlier this year to farewell a Head Hunters member who died in custody.

Police say the Gang Intelligence Centre – a group of 12 government agencies sharing information with the aim of reducing gang harm – has failed to fulfil its potential and has been obstructed by public attention and political debate.

In briefings to Police Minister Poto Williams over the past year, police laid out the challenges the centre has faced since being set up in 2016.

“The GIC has not fulfilled its potential and work is under way to strengthen the GIC to better support cross-agency action,” Williams was told.

“Its development work has been obstructed by public attention and political debate on the merits or otherwise of the National Gangs List and the consequent responses to OIAs [Official Information Act requests], Written Parliamentary Questions, and similar responsive demands,” they said in a separate briefing.

**READ MORE:

Increasing figures on the National Gang List has been a topic of political debate.

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* More gang members and more violence in Central police district

* Gangs cost $714m in welfare, report reveals, as new intelligence centre launched

The National Gang List – a record of prospective and patched members from each region – has received ongoing attentionboth in the media and by politicians in relation to the rising figures.

Simon Bridges and Andrew Coster spar in fiery exchange over gangs. (Video first published in February)

The frank admissions highlight the difficulties in understanding – and counteracting – New Zealand’s complex gang environment and vulnerable people associated with those communities.

The information was contained in documentation being prepared for Simeon Brown, National’s police spokesman, in response to his Official Information Act request. It was obtained by Stuff before it had been redacted and sent to him.

Brown said any move by the Government to hide gang figures from the public would be an attempt to abscond from accountability.

Gang Intelligence Centre manager Kate Parkes says the National Gang List is continually being improved but is an intelligence tool that needs to be utilised in conjunction with other information. (File photo)

“The Government appears to have allowed the Gang Intelligence Centre to fail – rather than utilise it to keep New Zealanders safe,” he said.

Commissioner Andrew Coster previously said the National Gang List was not accurate and he would prefer it was not released.

National MP Simeon Brown says any move by the Government to hide gang figures from the public will be an attempt to abscond from accountability.

It was easy for someone to be added to the list if they were seen as patched, but it was much more difficult to remove someone unless they died, he said.

“People don't knock on our door and say, I've left the gang, and when they do, we don't believe them,” he said in an interview earlier this year.

University of Canterbury Director of Criminology and gang expert Jarrod Gilbert also described the figures as “highly inaccurate.”

The National Government established the centre in 2016 as part of its Gang Action Plan. It is now comprised of 12 agencies including police, Corrections, Oranga Tamariki, and the ministries of Social Development, Health and Education.

Police were “refreshing” the centre to strengthen it and support cooperation between the agencies. In one briefing, from April, police said this would involve a new operating model, a new name and brand, and a data platform, which would draw together social, health, economic and crime data, to assist where harm is occurring.

The centre’s manager, Kate Parkes, this week said the “refresh” was almost complete, but could not provide a specific date of when it would be finished.

“As you can imagine, with 12 agencies involved, this is not quick work.”

The centre was exploring options to generate a harm prioritisation model, including combining crime and victimisation data, the crime harm index, the deprivation index and partner agency information, she said in a statement.

“This will enable GIC agencies to prioritise their prevention and intervention efforts towards the communities with the greatest need,” Parkes said.

The National Gang List was continually being improved, she said. “However, it is an intelligence tool that needs to be utilised in conjunction with other qualitative and quantitative information. It is one tool amongst a range of other sources enabling GIC agencies to understand gang-related harm.”

A police intelligence report submitted in July last year identified a number of challenges facing the Gang Intelligence Centre, including that a manager and a supervisor position remained vacant for “a considerable period,” which put the centre at risk of failing to meet demand.

Combining data across agencies had also proven to be problematic, and despite an information sharing agreement being signed by all parties, ongoing development of operating protocols had caused challenges to information flow, and delays due to the need for legal approval within individual agencies, the report said.

Two months on from the report Parkes was appointed as the centre’s manager, with multiple sources telling RNZ previous poor leadership had failed to have an impact on gang harm.

Williams said she expected ministers would be briefed on the results of the refresh once it was complete.