Māori likely to be disproportionately affected by increase in police officers, justice advocates say

By Ashleigh McCaull, reporter

Justice advocates say plans to pour money into extra police will do little to address the main cause of crime, with Māori likely to be disproportionately affected.

It follows the government's pre-budget announcement of $560 million over four years to police.

Of that, $94 million will go towards tackling gangs and organised crime.

People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson Emilie Rākete said Māori would be heavily impacted by the move.

"Māori will be the victims of the kind of push for a more communicative approach from the police that many people are asking for right now. But the question they should be asking is, will this fix the problem? Will giving the police $500 million do more good than giving $500 million to social services, to state housing, to providing employment and the answer to that is no it won't."

The package will include boosting police numbers by an extra 1800 by the end of the year to have an ongoing ratio of one officer to every 480 New Zealanders.

Rākete said extra officers would not solve the root cause of crime.

"The government has rushed to push money onto the police, fine that's their solution every single time there is a crisis raised about certain kind of crime but they never deal with the fundamental social problems that cause things like ram raids so this problem will continue to exist."

Despite a recent wave of ram raids, the most recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show youth crime rates have fallen by 65 percent.

Former prisoner and justice advocate Awatea Mita agreed with Rākete.

She said the government was taking the wrong approach in dealing with issues around rangatahi Māori and ram raids.

"The previous generation statistics on crime, the statistics for their generation is worse. We didn't have the same kind of outcry or the response of 1800 new officers put on the street then, so why does it seem like such an appropriate response to have it now. It's not appropriate, it's inappropriate"

Police figures showed there were 283 ram raids in the country in the 12 months to October last year.

The number of Māori who appeared in the youth court reduced by over 50 percent from 2016 to 2021.

Speaking on Midday Report Green Party justice spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said the package for police was unnecessary.

"Yes shopkeepers do need support and they can get support, but this package is actually focused on more cops and more cops with guns. It's sort of devastating for New Zealand who voted for a progressive government who are getting this kinda regressive approach to justice."