The Police Commissioner said there had been at least one meeting between leaders of Auckland gangs who are 'at war', as police work to de-escalate tensions by wearing them down.
Andrew Coster (File photo) Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Friction between former allies the Tribesmen and Killer Beez has been behind the recent surge in violence in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said it was the result of long-running tensions, and recently there had been "in the vicinity of 10 shootings", including five in one night. There were also "a number of lower level incidents", which he would not detail.
Police would fight back by wearing the gangs down he told Morning Report, pulling them up on every little thing they could, issuing search warrants and "putting on the pressure".
"Eventually that, combined with the stress that they feel from being at war does tend to calm these things down." - Police Commissioner, Andrew Coster
"Our approach... is to target any activity we can find, as an opportunity to send them a message. We find everything we can, and that's to send a message that this way of behaving is completely unacceptable.
"And eventually that, combined with the stress that they feel from being at war does tend to calm these things down - that's what we will keep doing.
"Clearly it's incredibly unnerving for these communities affected, and I really feel for them. These things unfortunately tend to come in waves ... we are doing absolutely everything we can to target those groups."
Seven people had been arrested, four "high powered" guns and 250 rounds of ammunition had been seized by police, and they said there was an ongoing search for shotguns and rifles the gangs were believed to have.
Yesterday, Coster told RNZ he was very concerned at their access to firearms.
He confirmed today that at least one meeting between leaders of the gangs had taken place, and police would continue to encourage the two groups to carry out discussions and any other measures that could lead to a de-escalation in the tensions.
"You'll have some awareness of the history in terms of a life-changing injury to the leader of one of the groups, I'm sure that's part of it, but in the end there are deep running tensions between them."
Police previously said a truce was called between the groups, in 2020. But community leaders warned that the tensions would continue if "radical interventions" weren't made.
Coster said significant funds in the recent national budget for the Tactical Response Model meant there would be more specialist police staff to help deal with problems like gang crime.
While details about how the money would be spent were still being finalised, he said it was loosely earmarked for Tactical Prevention Teams, who would use "intelligence-led enforcement" to focus on high-risk offenders, and tactical dog teams that would be sent to high risk jobs.
Armed offenders squad officers were already responding to the incidents, and an AOS member had recovered some of the firearms already found.
Coster said rising concerns about crime in Auckland, including an string of ram raids on shops, were part of wide-ranging social effects stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We are in very concerning times. Much of the existing problems we had have been aggravated by Covid.
"If we think of youth crime - why have we got so many kids who haven't re-engaged with school post-Covid? When we think about town centres, we all worked from home and left town centres to whoever was left through the last two years...
"That will change as people come back in, as police are able to move away from Covid policing and get back to our core business. But these challenges that we have will be longer-running in our communities."