Editorial: Gangs Act enforcement leads to thousands of charges but the real results will come in convictions

Police enforcing the new law at a recent gang member's tangi in Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor

Editorial

Yesterday’s headlines started with the police failure to answer non-urgent calls in 90 seconds – an own goal because they introduced the waiting times themselves.

Newstalk ZB, using the Official Information Act, learned police had abandoned the waiting times to answer non-emergency 105 calls and implemented a customer satisfaction measurement instead.

That’s fair enough because if it’s not working – people don’t ring 105 to just shoot the breeze with a call-taker - then changing the game and the goalposts is acceptable.

Those negative wait-time call headlines (or headaches for police communications) would on a normal news cycle day play out for most of the morning.

But within a few hours, those negative headlines had changed to the police crackdown on gangs and how the introduction of November’s Gangs Act has resulted in thousands of charges against gang members and dozens of patches being confiscated: way better political optical headlines.

The police press release at 8.12am said 76 gang patches had been seized, 316 additional insignia items also grabbed, 337 insignia breach charges under Gangs Act, 3037 other charges against gang members (including drugs, firearms, serious violence), and 67 firearms seized from gangs as the hits against the gangs just kept coming.

To show heavyweight support for the officers tasked with spearheading the gang crackdown, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers headed to the Counties-Manukau base’s Gang Disruption Unit to celebrate the success of Operation Nickel – a nationally-led plan to support all police staff with the new enforcement powers.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (from left), Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo / Dean Purcell

Chambers says the raft of charges reflect the stance police are taking against gangs.

“Our expectations around this legislation have been clear from the very beginning – if you wear a gang patch in public, or display a sign or symbol associated with a gang, you can expect police attention – and these numbers demonstrate that.”

He added that police are not just focused on insignia breaches but also on serious crimes linked to gang activity.

The problem with Chambers’ statement is criminals and drug dealers, many attached to the gangs, don’t wear their patches while they are doing their business.

But the Gangs Act has made a difference. You no longer see blinged-up, patched-up gang members riding their Harley Davidson motorbikes, weaving in and out of the traffic.

Patched-up gang members are no longer walking the streets, intimidating the public.

But of the thousands of breach notices dished out by police, not one has yet resulted in a conviction or a fine.

The real test will come when those charges are tested in the courts and then we can really see if they are making a difference.