Funding will also go towards tackling gangs and organised crime, support for businesses against ram raiders, the establishment of a new firearms unit, more training for police officers and the continuation of programmes focused on breaking the cycle of offending.
Faafoi said the Government's investment in law and order would build on the work already being done to help reduce crime.
"Since we took office, we have 1411 more police on the frontline - the highest number in our history," Faafoi said.
"Youth crime has also decreased, plus there are 3083 fewer people in our prisons. But there is more to do.
"In recent years we have seen increases in gun crime, gang activity and even more recently some forms of youth offending that puts both our communities and our police at risk and we must address that."
Williams said the Government's investment would ensure the continuation of resources needed to keep communities safe, with the first priority to increase the number of frontline police.
"When we took office, turning around declining police numbers was our number one priority," Williams said.
"Once we achieve our goal of an extra 1800 police officers later this year, we will ensure numbers don't fall away again by maintaining an ongoing ratio of one police officer to every 480 New Zealanders.
"When we came into office that ratio was standing at one police officer for every 548 Kiwis."
NZ First party member and former minister for Regional Economic Development Shane Jones has been vocal regarding his concerns around gang violence in Te Taitokerau, particularly in and around Kaikohe.
Jones has been calling for a robust response to the problem and said while the funding was positive, in the Te Taitokerau context, better police-community relationships were essential to tackling the issue.
"This has been a long time coming, but it's going to take a lot more than this allocation to address the issue of gang violence and crime here in Northland," Jones said.
"I can guarantee those families who have spawned these young ram-raiders know exactly who they are and you wouldn't need to scratch far to find this out."
Jones said police needed to bring more community influencers into their network of confidence and embrace pods of knowledge that already existed.
He said police also needed to be more visible and empower people who were afraid to step up when witnessing a deterioration in their local community.
"If police showed more visibility, these problems could be reversed, so it's absolutely essential there are regular sightings of police in hotspots to provide confidence to those likely to be victims of gang scourge to come forward," Jones said.
"It's one thing to have the putea (money), but unless you change attitudes towards police, nothing will change."
Te Paati Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi told RNZ's Morning Report yesterday he believed the announcement would not address drivers of crime and more needed to be done around prevention.
He said of the male prison population, Māori represented 55 per cent, allegedly up 2 per cent from 2019.
"We can't police and jail our way out of the problems caused by failing education, health, housing and the welfare system, can we?" Waititi said.
"Unemployment is another issue and the burden of imprisonment is carried disproportionately by Māori, so having more police on the beat is not going to fix any of the systemic problems that exist."
The Northland Age approached New Zealand Police for comment on the funding and specifically how the money would benefit communities across Northland.
Due to the investment only being announced on a national level, NZ Police said it was unable to comment on what it would mean on a district level at this time.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster did say, however, that funding for gang harm reduction and enforcement would allow police to build on the work being done to address organised crime-related harm caused in communities.
"We welcome the recognition of the need to keep our staff trained, equipped and supported when dealing with firearms incidents on the front line through $164.5 million operating and $20.7 million capital funding for our Tactical Response Model," Coster said.
"The $208 million over four years for the establishment of a dedicated Firearms Business Unit will also support important ongoing work to reduce gun violence, as well as continue enforcement work being done through Operations Tauwhiro and Cobalt.
"The New Zealand Policing environment is changing. This investment acknowledges these changes and will help keep our staff and all New Zealanders safe."
Part of the new investment includes funds for offender rehabilitation, which is set to provide an extra 518 corrections staff.
Corrections Minister and MP for Te Taitokerau Kelvin Davis said the investment was setting the foundation for change and acknowledged it would take generations to break cycles of violence.
He said as part of the Corrections investment, Ngawha Prison would also benefit from more rehabilitation options, as would other prisons in the region.
He also rejected Waititi's claims, however, that more police would mean worse outcomes for Māori.
"I completely reject the notion that we are focusing on punitive measures rather than rehabilitative," Davis said.
"When I became Corrections Minister prisons were bursting at the seams and the population was projected to be over 13,000 by now.
"Instead the prison population has been reduced by more than 3000, there are 1200 fewer Māori in prison, and we have halved both the women's population and double-bunking.
"The imprisonment rate for Māori has also dropped by 29 per cent since 2018, so I would not call that a negative for our people."
"I agree that you can't 'arrest people out of crime', that is why the Government is so focused on rehabilitation. But I also appreciate people and businesses need to feel safe and our investment in keeping police at a ratio of 1 to 480 people, the best rate ever, will do just that."
National Party police spokesman Mark Mitchell said he too did not believe greater police numbers would mean tougher consequences for offenders.
According to Mitchell, gang numbers were up 40 per cent, violent crime was up 21 per cent and police response times had blown out since Labour came into government.
"This is all despite Labour announcing more money for police over the same period, proving that more money doesn't mean there will be serious consequences for offenders or better support for victims," Mitchell said.
"Our police are out there every day working incredibly hard to keep Kiwis safe but are not being backed by this soft-on-crime Labour Government."
Further announcements are said to come in other areas on May 19 when the full Budget is revealed.
Law and Order Package Factbox:
• $208m towards the Firearms Register, to improve the firearms licencing system and enable safer firearms use in New Zealand.
• $94.5m to support the Government's cross-agency response to organised crime. Including the Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities programme, Transnational Organised Crime Strategy and programmes focused on preventing the harm to New Zealand communities caused and exacerbated by drugs, firearms violence and serious criminal offences.
• Rollout of the Frontline Response Model across the country, with $164.6m in operating and $20.7m in capital funding to be invested to improve the safety of frontline police workforce and communities. This is said to more than double the current tactical training for frontline police, boost intelligence capabilities and improve the safety and capability of tactical dog teams.
• $8m Investment to increase the capacity of Te Pae Oranga providers and Police, to provide additional referrals for rangatahi (youth) who have experienced family harm.
• $24.7m to enhance the cybercrime capabilities of police.
• $12.3m over four years to support victims of serious crime, including whānau bereaved by homicide and sexual violence survivors. The additional funding for Victim Assistance Scheme Financial Grants will help to ease the burden of victimisation for New Zealanders.
• $59.5m over four years to help meet demand for critical court and justice services. A focus on more whānau-centred, empowering and inclusive justice processes.
• Investment in digitising the paper-based court process.
• An additional 518 FTE will be added to the Corrections workforce over the next four years. An extra 120 frontline staff will be added to provide staff with access to better rosters and more weekends, as well as increase access to programmes for prisoners.
• 100 new staff for the women's prison network, 23 frontline staff to boost health escorts for female prisoners and 70 further frontline staff to allow greater access to programmes, particularly for wāhine on remand.
• The redesign and delivery of a Kaupapa Māori health service will receive $16m and include 33 frontline health professionals. This service will deliver continuity of care for those who transition back into the community through referral pathways back to whānau, hapū and iwi health services.
• A total of 64 extra staff to boost safety settings in prisons.
• A further 24 staff will be added to manage persons of extreme risk, including 10 intel staff to support the justice sector in efforts to monitor gang activity and reduce the impact of trans-national organised crime.
• $24.9m will be made available to continue the High Impact Innovation Programme, which contributes to justice initiatives such as the Te Ao Marama courts, the Victims operating model and the Criminal Process Improvement Programme aimed at reducing the backlog of court cases.
