Opinion: Right or wrong, strategy on gangs needs to change

Former National party candidate David Elliott asks "What has happened to the Hawke's Bay I grew up in?"

Former National party candidate David Elliott asks "what has happened to the Hawke's Bay I grew up in? "

Back in 2018 Mike Williams disagreed with my proposed tough stance on crime.

He stated in Hawke's Bay Today that I was just plain wrong in my views.

Given the current increase in gang numbers and violence in Hawke's Bay I could perhaps claim some vindication.

A young woman threatened while walking along Waimarama beach, violence in the streets of Hastings and LA-style gangland shootings in Napier.

What has happened to the Hawke's Bay I grew up in? If this is not a call for the government to change their attitude towards dealing with gangs, I do not know what is.

Nash campaigned on "smashing the gangs" for years, yet even when given an entire police force to play with his promises went unfilled.

The current Tukituki MP helpfully says she is "talking to the Police" about ways forward.

In the meantime, we Hawke's Bay residents worry about the safety of ourselves, our children and our region.

The Government trumpeted less prison numbers as the panacea for reducing criminal ills, instead we have more gang members and shootings in the street. Will it take an innocent victim to die before they realise their policies are not working?

In February last year a review of evidence on all the various crime reduction strategies was published by the Center for Police Research and Policy in the US.

It comprehensively reviewed the empirical evidence for differing strategies in tackling violent crime and gangs. It makes interesting reading and notes the degree of success and failings with each strategy.

Interestingly it surmises that "violence is highly concentrated at micro places and a small number of chronic offenders". It states that if police and community resources are focused on these there is an effective reduction in violence, crime and disorder in general.

This seems logical considering most of us are law-abiding citizens that require little police resource.

Strategies researched included among others; firearms crackdowns, focused deterrence, SQF (stop, question, frisk), Broken Windows Policing, Project Safe Neighbourhoods and Hot Spots Policing.

Some of these would send civil libertarians into mad paroxysms of keyboard bashing, but are we not at a point where we actually take the researched data into account rather than just social arguments?

The report does make clear that traditional gang enforcement strategies have little impact in the long term.

Any offender-based deterrence programmes need to be partnered with community-based programmes that address the factors that lead to gang membership.

Youth focused prevention and intervention programmes targeting those most at risk of being pulled into gangs. To defeat the gangs, you need balance.

Effective research driven strategies enacted through an empowered Police partnered with effective community support programmes. We should all agree that money properly invested into bettering the lives and prospects of our youth can only pay dividends in the future.

At the end of his career Bill English noted that political intention to do good is insufficient, any government intervention must prove it actually does good, otherwise it may in fact be doing harm. In Hawke's Bay, we are seeing the harm, its time to change course.

David Elliott lives in Hawke's Bay and is currently completing a Master's Degree at King's College, London. He was a National Party candidate in the 2017 election.