New specialist gang unit criticised as ‘purely politically motivated’
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster announced the establishment of specialist national gang unit on Tuesday.
Reactions to the news of the unit have been mixed, with serving police officers worried about how it will be staffed and funding.
A former gang liaison officer has also warned that it will take a “serious amount of time” to claw back damaged relationships between police officers and gang members.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster announced plans to establish a specialised national gang unit earlier this week - but the reaction amongst his officers has been less than positive.
One detective said the initiative is “purely politically motivated”, another officer fears it’s too little too late and the gang problem in New Zealand is the “horse that’s already bolted”.
Stuff spoke to two serving officers and one former cop who all have reservations about Coster’s new “pet project”.
The detective who cited fears about the motivations behind the new unit also raised concerns about how it would be funded and staffed.
“Gangs are definitely becoming more of a problem, with a lot of murders and gun violence, but I think Coster is in for a shock. I think staffing is going to be a real issue,” Paul* said.
The unit will be a strengthened, coordinated, intelligence-informed nationwide taskforce that will prioritise efforts to combat gang violence across the motu, according to Coster.
Coster estimated that between 25 and 30 specialised police staff will form the basis of the national unit, which will then be supported by teams in every district with about seven people in each team.
How the unit will be funded isn’t yet known, with Police Minister Mark Mitchell saying all will be revealed in the budget announcement at the end of this month.
But Paul asked: “Where will these 25 to 30 officers come from?”
As police remain locked in tense pay negotiations with the Government, Paul said he thought more frontline staff would leave the force “if the pay round don’t go our way”.
He also worried that a specialist gang unit would add little to the policing landscape, with organised crime units already in place.
Paul’s staffing concerns were echoed by Steve*, who has been worked on the policing frontline in Auckland for almost a decade.
“Where will the numbers come from? We can’t recruit faster than people are leaving.
“When we implemented family harm teams, they took numbers from the districts and didn’t replace them. I don’t believe we can get the numbers without affecting the frontline,” Steve said.
Meanwhile, a former cop who spent seven years working as a gang liaison officer in the Bay of Plenty region said that while he hoped there would be “some benefits” to the taskforce, he was wary of how long time it would take to see the effects of it.
“As things stand, they’re chasing their tails when it comes to gangs. The horse has already bolted,” James* said.
James said that during his time as a gang liaison officer, good relationships with gang members had been the key to managing gang affiliated crimes.
“There used to be a bit of mutual respect, so that when you asked a gang member to remove their patch, they would. They might fire up a little bit, but because we knew them, we could talk them through it.
“But I know no one took over my role when I left in 2015, and I think that’s been the same in a lot of the districts. So now you have new hierarchies in place in some of the more ‘traditional’ gangs who don’t have the same level of respect for the police,” he said.
James warned it would take a “serious amount of time” to claw back relationships between officers and gang members, and expressed particular concern about proposed legislation banning gang patches.
“There’s no way you’re going to be able to physically drag gang patches off someone. You’ll need four or five officers to take a single patch off.
“So if you get 200 or so gang members together, it will absolutely be impossible to drag them off.”
*Stuff has given the police officers spoken to pseudonyms to protect their employment and former covert work.