Northland a top priority for police: Minister Paula Bennett

Police Minister Paula Bennett. Photo / File

Northland has been earmarked as a "priority district" for extra police once a wave of new recruits has been trained, Police Minister Paula Bennett says.

Ongoing issues in Kaikohe with out-of-control youth - which came to a head on Friday when mobs of boys as young as 11 stole boxes of beer from a liquor store and tried to smash into a service station - have cast a spotlight on police numbers in the mid-North.

Businessman Tony Taylor, who runs Kaikohe Community Patrol, said more police were needed urgently and they needed more powers to deal with underage offenders.

Mr Taylor said just five officers were on duty across the mid-North on Friday night with most of those kept busy with St Patrick's Day incidents in Kerikeri and Paihia.

Police bosses, however, disputed that figure, saying 11 staff were on duty until midnight on Friday, and seven after midnight when the attack on the Mobil service station took place.

Last month Mrs Bennett announced an extra $500 million to boost police numbers by 1125, of which 880 would be frontline staff.

This week she told the Advocate that 140 of those new staff would go to 20 regional and rural police stations around New Zealand. It was up to the Police Commissioner, who would soon make an announcement, exactly where the extra officers would go.

"But I have been given an assurance that every district will receive more police and that Northland has been identified as a priority district for more officers," she said.

Meanwhile, Alan Price, a Kaikohe business owner, has invited Ms Bennett to Kaikohe to hear first-hand about the town's policing issues.

He said staffing levels were "abysmally low" but suspected that was due to the way resources were being used rather than a lack of numbers. Even when underage offenders were caught there was little police could do, he said.

A spokeswoman for Mrs Bennett confirmed the invitation had been received but a reply had yet to be sent.

Northland MP and NZ First leader Winston Peters said the Government had "broken the thin blue line" and the first step to cutting crime in Kaikohe was to boost police strength.

Police resources had been frozen since 2009, leading to a dramatic drop in staff numbers, and only in election year was the Government looking at boosting the force, Mr Peters said.

He believed much of the youth crime in places like Kaikohe was "stealing to order", where children stole on behalf of adults because they were untouchable. The Government had made a mistake by raising the youth justice age last year, Mr Peters said.

Once police numbers had been restored a "serious focus" had to go on the families involved, including setting conditions on welfare payments.