The government's $500m pledge to tackle gang and youth-related crime must look beyond a three-year election cycle and be firmly evidence-based, academics are warning.
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A community advocate also says some people are committing crimes to survive and the new funding is an investment in the wrong area.
The government yesterday announced $500 million in extra funding to boost the number of front line police officers, and fund other initiatives.
The funding will be spent over four years on tackling gun crime, and organised crime, setting up a new unit to oversee the firearms register, and boosting police tactical response training.
It comes after a spate of crimes against businesses, including ram raids in Auckland involving children.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report her government's policies did not reflect that it was soft on crime.
National has claimed the new measures would do little to address wider problems faced by a police force lacking what is called agency to tackle youth crime.
Canterbury senior lecturer Jarrod Gilbert told Morning Report he had anticipated tougher laws against gangs in light of recent high-profile ram raids.
"It was very clear I think that this was coming and it's a reaction to in many instances valid community concern, but nevertheless it is important that we see these things in a sober light," he said.
Any move towards warrantless searches was a step that should be taken with absolute caution, as police power to search homes was already significant..
"The police can, right now, go into someone's house without a warrant and search for firearms if they've got reasonable grounds to do so. If we change that legislation and make it easier, what we are essentially saying is they can go in on unreasonable grounds," he said.
Canterbury senior lecturer Jarrod Gilbert says there are broader measures there to tackle crimes like ram raids. Photo:
University of Auckland professor of Indigenous Studies Tracey McIntosh said it was important that all community members experienced trust and safety when dealing state agencies, particularly when children were potentially witnessing police actions in the home.
"I think what we're seeing is quite strong intent to create conditions for change," she told Morning Report.
"It don't know if there's a lot of detail there and I hope that we will draw really strongly on expertise, on evidence, including lived experience, to ensure that whatever investment is made it actually creates better outcomes for for whānau and community and that we can have a much stronger sense of collective security."
Gilbert, author of Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand, said there were broader ways of addressing the spike on ram raids, which was a trend partly fuelled by the attention this type of crime had been attracting.
He cautioned against allowing short-term political considerations shape policy.
"These types of things are usually created by copycats, so in some ways the attention that we bring to them assists the concern, because people see it and copy it," he said.
"There are technological things we can do - fog machines and bollards. But in all likelihood by the time we've done these things the issue would have gone. There is concern there, but when we're talking about offenders as young as 10, is that really something we need to tackle with law and order.
"We need to be looking beyond the three-year election cycle if we're genuinely want to come to grips with some of these issues, particularly around young offending" - Canterbury senior lecturer Jarrod Gilbert
"Don't get me wrong, something needs to be done to help those businesses ... but we need to bring this lens back in debates, we are so focused on the short-term. We need to be looking beyond the three-year election cycle if we're genuinely want to come to grips with some of these issues, particularly around young offending."
University of Auckland professor of Indigenous Studies Tracey McIntosh says any resources to address the issue in women prisons must be culturally informed and evidence-based. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
McIntosh said plans to expand the police tactical unit, given the statistics on people being shot and the disproportional effect on Maori communities, was a worry.
Behind those statistics was devastation within families over the loss of loved ones, and it was likely that this legacy would continue, she added.
On a positive, Gilbert said he was pleased that the plan included on effort to try to limit the impact on family unit of having females in prison. About 92 percent of the prison population is male, but female incarcerating affected the family unit disproportionately with significant sociological outcomes, he said.
"When mum goes it's incredibly disruptive and again we need to look at what we're doing in criminal justice with an eye on the future to ensure that we aren't creating future offenders and therefore future victims."
Christchurch Prison had a solid plan about addressing recidivism and heal the family unit, which could only be achieved with resources, something that the plan offered, he added.
Tracey said any resources to address the issue in women prisons must be culturally informed and evidence-based.
"The intergenerational reach of women is so significant, so I'm really interested to read the detail about what that investment looks like, what's the reintegration outside of the wire looks like, and what are we doing prevention wise to ensure that women are not just circulating through that system."
Investment in wrong place
Meanwhile, a community advocate says the government's funding to police is an investment in the wrong space.
Eugene Ryder told Morning Report this government and consecutive governments before had never focused on the drivers of gang-related crime.
"Why do young people feel they need to commit crimes in the first place? Some are doing it to survive. So it's about making an investment in whānau and their capacity to look after their children."
Ryder said clearly whānau were struggling for housing, employment and education.