The justice minister hopes the gang patch ban will eventually cut down on overall crime, new top cop says he's open to looking into bodycams for the country's police officers.
Specialist police staff are currently working on a broadened list of gangs they will ask the Government to add to the Gangs Act 2024 so those groups and their members aresubject to a prohibition on displaying their insignia in public.
Confirmation police are seeking to expand the list came after Herald inquiries as to why the Crips were covered by the new law but not their sworn rivals the Bloods.
They would not say which organisations are to be added to the 35 already covered by the new law, but ruled out adding designated terror groups to the insignia ban.
It is now a little over a week since the law banning the display of gang insignia in public came into force at midnight on November 21.
The first arrest came three minutes after midnight when a man allegedly with Mongrel Mob insignia on his car was stopped by police and slapped with a summons for displaying gang insignia in public.
Police conducted the first raid under the new Gangs Act for displaying insignia in public on November 22 at the Henderson pad of the Head Hunters West chapter. Photo / Michael Craig
Other notable arrests include a group of Head Hunters allegedly wearing their patches while riding through the Mobil service station in Wellsford on the day the ban came into force, including a man alleged to be the president of the gang’s west chapter.
They were arrested the following day in an early morning raid on the Head Hunters West pad in Henderson, Auckland, with some led away in their pyjamas. As of Thursday, police had laid 38 charges under the new law.
Schedule 2 of the Gangs Act 2024sets out a list of 35 gangs whose insignia, including patches, are now illegal to display in public.
They include international outlaw motorcycle clubs such as the Hells Angels, Mongols and Rebels, traditional patched gangs originating in New Zealand like the Mongrel Mob, Black Power and King Cobras, and lesser-known groups including the Kuki Squad, the Damned Pirates and the Full Blooded Islanders (FBI).
Police said for a gang to be eligible for Schedule 2, it must have a common name or identifying signs or symbols, be currently active in New Zealand and have members or associates who have been convicted of an offence carrying a maximum possible prison term of two years or more in the past five years.
As a result, some older and less active, or defunct gangs, previously listed in 2013 legislation banning insignia from government buildings are not listed in the new law.
Gangs listed in the 2013 government building ban but not in the new patch ban law include Tokoroa’s Hu-Hu MC, the defunct Lost Breed MC formerly of Nelson, Upper Hutt’s Sinn Fein MC and the Southern Vikings.
One notable omission from the new Gangs Act is the Bloods, a group originating in Los Angeles known for its longstanding rivalry with the Crips. Local imitations of both gangs began to emerge in Auckland in the 1990s and gained a foothold among South Auckland street gangs.
Hundreds of gang members at the tangi of William "Bird" Hines in Foxton in November 2023. Of the gangs pictured, the Head Hunters, Greazy Dogs and Nomads are subject to the current insignia ban under the new Gangs Act, but the Hu-Hu MC (member lower left) are not. Photo / Bevan Conley
The Crips are listed in the Gangs Act 2024 as subject to the insignia ban, but the Bloods are not, despite appearing to meet the criteria stated by police. Crips are known for their blue insignia and Bloods are associated with red.
It is less than five years since two Bloods members in Auckland, Janeiro Tapusoa and Leroy Tinei, were convicted for murdering Sam Tupou, who they mistook for a Crip because he was wearing a blue singlet, though he was not associated with any gang.
Both Bloods and Crips members have been responsible for several serious assaults on Corrections staff in recent years, according to data released by the department under the Official Information Act.
This week the Herald asked police why the Crips were listed in the new law but the Bloods were not.
Police said in a statement that Schedule 2 of the Gangs Act 2024 included the same 35 gangs currently on the police National Gang List.
“However, the act also allows for a subtle but important broadening of the scope of gangs to be included in Schedule 2 compared to the NGL,” the statement said.
“Police’s Gang Harm Insights Centre has and continues to assess gangs that may meet the new criteria.
“Police are currently in the process of developing further recommendations to ministers for changes to Schedule 2, which will be submitted shortly and ultimately determined by ministers on advice from police.”
Police National Headquarters later confirmed to the Herald this statement meant police would be asking the Government to add more gangs to the act.
A spokeswoman said they had nothing to add to their original statement when asked which specific groups specialist gang staff want to see added to the new law.
However, she said there was no plan to add designated terror organisations to the schedule, “given that this legislation is about gangs and we do not classify designated terror organisations as gangs”.
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
