Police Association Says Creating New Police Forces Is Not The Answer
“Creating new Police Forces is not the answer to cutting crime,” Police Association President Greg O’Connor said today.
“Adequately resourcing the existing Police is the solution.”
Mr O’Connor was responding to Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey’s call for resources to enable cities like his to set up their own police services to deal with low-level crime.
“American, Canadian and even Australian police forces which are hampered by jurisdictional problems, duplication of management and the resulting inefficiencies, envy New Zealand’s single jurisdictional, one police status.
“New Zealand is the lowest police to population ratio in the western world, Mr O’Connor said. “Simply bringing us up to the same percentages enjoyed by Australians and Americans would go a long way to alleviate Mayor Harvey’s concerns.”
“The Police Association believes that central government simply must provide the Police numbers to do the job that they and the public want the police to do.
“Higher clearance rates show that police officers are working harder than ever,” he said.
“Burgeoning crime problems associated with methamphetamine require new resource focus, and numbers cannot come from the existing resource as it will simply move the problem,” Mr O’Connor said.
“The Police Association repeats its call for a public inquiry into the methamphetamine epidemic which has triggered Mayor Harvey’s statement so that the full effect of the massive increase in methamphetamine can be identified and addressed,” Mr O’Connor concluded.
