Police Minister Mark Mitchell wants to ‘just start taking’ boy racers’ cars by changing ‘Crusher Collins’ law

The Police Minister wants to remove restrictions from the ‘Crusher Collins’ legislation to make it easier to destroy boy racers’ cars.

The Herald on Wednesday morning revealed Mark Mitchell will fail to introduce new legislation cracking down on boy racers by the end of the year, as he has said he would. Instead, it will be introduced early next year, he said.

He’s previously said he wanted to make it easier to “seize the vehicles and keep them”, pointing to constraints in legislation that require multiple offences to have been committed before someone’s car is destroyed.

Legislation introduced in 2009 by then-Police Minister Judith Collins allowed for cars to be confiscated and destroyed, but only after a third illegal street racing offence had been committed. It led to Collins getting the moniker ‘Crusher Collins’.

Mitchell elaborated on what he was planning on Newstalk ZB on Wednesday.

“I just want to start taking these boy racers’ cars and bikes and start crushing them,” he said.

When Labour’s Ginny Andersen, appearing alongside Mitchell, pointed out she thought that was the purpose of Collins’ legislation, the minister said, “Judith had outstanding legislation, but it required three warnings”.

“I am taking the three warnings away, we are just going to start taking them.”

Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Herald Photo / Mark Mitchell

Mitchell has defended the delay by saying the legislation was “probably more complex than we anticipated” and he didn’t want to “compromise providing a high quality and comprehensive set of tools” for officers.

But Andersen’s called it “another broken promise” from Mitchell, pointing to concerns that the Government may miss its target of delivering 500 new police officers within two years, by the end of November next year.

“He did say he would get 500 police officers by the end of November, and then the Commissioner said, no, he’s not. Then he’s trying to gaslight everybody by saying, no we are on the same page,” Andersen said.

“I wonder whether he is going to do the same thing with the boy racers. It does seem like a bit of a pattern with Mark, that he promises big stuff and doesn’t manage to deliver.”

Mitchell defended himself by saying the Government had taken steps to improve foot patrols by officers, make Auckland central safer and tackle the gangs.

There have been several boy racers events this year that have caught the minister’sattention, including one in Levin in June that involved more than 200 cars. Two officers were pelted with rocks and bottles when they tried to intervene.

Hundreds joined another event in Wairarapa in October, resulting in six people being arrested and two cars being impounded.

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.