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Leader's LetterOctober 2004
Stats and Spin Won’t Hide Their SinRecently released figures tell us offending is going down but we all know crime continues to plague New Zealanders. We’re not impressed by spin doctors touting figures depicting decreasing crime levels and increasing resolution rates. Our focus remains firmly fixed on the up to 60 percent of crime that goes unreported, which directly represents a loss of confidence in the police and the justice system. We must cut out the hype and go to the core of the issue which is there must be a pragmatic and credible plan to reduce crime. Sufficient resources should be allocated to make that plan a reality and there must be total determination to execute it at the highest level of governance. New Zealand First’s approach to law and order will follow such a plan, for we believe that we will never overcome many of the social ills this country faces unless we turn it into a place where people not only abide by the law but also demand compliance by their fellow citizens. So what will New Zealand First do? We WILL double the size of the police force and aim to do that over a period of five years. Why? Because there are simply not enough police on the beat to guarantee the safety of communities, patrol the streets, catch the thugs, or investigate and prosecute. The fact that the Government continues to pass legislation that is entirely reliant on police to enforce, like lowering the drinking age and legalising prostitution, which generate a higher level of consequential crime, is itself justification for an increase in police numbers. Furthermore, we will place traffic policing back with the LTSA where it belongs, making sure that police can concentrate on policing without having to act as highway revenue gatherers. Such a move will also ultimately win back the respect of the public. Other factors also place huge demands on the police that successive governments have failed to recognise and compensate the police for. Two of these are immigration and the drug trade. Open door immigration, which has seen huge numbers of people entering this country with an increasingly diverse range of ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, has brought with it new challenges, differing criminal profiles and a higher degree of exposure to international organised crime than police were ever resourced to handle. The drug trade in methamphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis poses one of the greatest threats to the well-being of New Zealand, and on that basis it must be crushed. For police to have any hope in dealing with this issue there must be again a big increase in police numbers and accordingly police funding. New Zealand First recognises that you need to have a “cop on every corner” to impose a “zero tolerance” approach for it is that very presence, that high profile and the ability to nip crime in the bud, that will be the greatest deterrence to delinquent and criminal behaviour. It is about police numbers - that is the single most important aspect to driving crime down. We WILL fund that, and it will happen when New Zealand First helps form the next government. Ron Mark MP
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