Police minister invited to Kaikohe

Kaikohe businessman (and National Party branch chairman) Alan Price has invited Police Minister Paula Bennett to visit the town and hear about its policing issues first-hand.

Kaikohe businessman Alan Price, who also chairs the local branch of the National Party, has invited Police Minister Paula Bennett to visit so she can hear about the town's policing issues first-hand.

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

Mr Price said last week that police staffing levels in Kaikohe were "abysmally low," but he suspected that was due to the way resources were being used rather than a lack of numbers. And even when under-age offenders were caught there was little the police could do.

"You can't touch them, there's no consequences. If we don't get control of this place the youths will take control," he said.

Ms Bennett has already said that Northland had been earmarked as a priority district for extra police once a wave of new recruits had been trained, but ongoing issues in Kaikohe with out-of-control youth, which came to a head when mobs of boys as young as 11 stole boxes of beer from a liquor store and tried to smash their way into a service station, have cast a spotlight on police numbers in the Mid North.

Businessman Tony Taylor, who runs the Kaikohe Community Patrol, said more police were needed urgently, and they needed more powers to deal with under-age offenders, who he said were free to carry on terrorising the town under the current law.

In February Ms Bennett announced an extra $500 million to boost police numbers by 1125, of which 880 would be frontline staff, 140 of those new officers going to 20 regional and rural stations around the country. It would be up to Commissioner Mike Bush to decide exactly where they 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." Meanwhile Northland MP Winston Peters said the government had "broken the thin blue line," and the first step to cutting crime in Kaikohe was to boost police.

Police resources had been frozen since 2009, leading to a dramatic drop in staff, and only in election year was the government looking at boosting the force, he 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. Responsibility had to be sheeted home at a younger age, Mr Peters said.

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