November 18, 2024 • 7 mins
The Police Minister says it’s important for police to be politically neutral.
There have been reports on social media of police officers helping to paint signs for today’s hīkoi.
Up to 30,000 people are expected to join the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti marching on Parliament in opposition to ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill.
Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking he’s aware of the reports, and has discussed the matter with the Police Commissioner.
He says that in order to maintain public confidence, it’s critical that the police are seen as politically neutral.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Police minister was on the beat in the Capitol yesterday
spreaking the fact that crime is in a lot of
areas is down and perhaps we can argue that the
crime wave and sense of hopelessness we'd endured these past
several years might have finally come to an end. Remembering,
of course, the minister said things would improve or he
would quit anyway. Police Minister Marke Mitchell as well, it's
very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning Mike.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Rhetoric versus the fact, to be fair to you, what
you do say, it's not over and there's a lot
of work, you know to do. What are the areas
that you are still concerned about.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So basically the same things that we became in government.
It's the gangs, the fact that the numbers have grown,
the fact that they are a lot more violent, the
caring fiums are willing to use them, and just the
general misery and harm that are inflicting on the communities
that they're in. So big focus on gangs and you
would have seen that there's been some pretty tough policing
around the gangs, but we've got a lot more work
to do violent retail crime, So the violent part of
(00:53):
the retail crime where the real human cost sits, although
we're starting to see reduction on that again, a lot
more work to do, So yeah, those were probably those
were sort of the two major areas that we've really
been focused in home Din on.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Would you were you asked, actually yesterday, are you going
to resign to people to the media still has to
you about resigning or are you feeling confident within yourself
that you've done enough to defend your reputation and stay
in the job.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, there used to ask me that a lot at
the beginning of the term, at the beginning of this year,
but they've sort of they've stopped asking me about it.
But I just thought it was coming up two olve
months and it was important for me that I did
that to hold myself to account because we're in such
a bad place as a country that the expectation is
that whoever took over as police minister, it's a huge responsibility.
(01:39):
You've got to show that your things are changing. Otherwise
I wasn't the right guy for the job or the
right person for the job. So we are starting to
see change. Like I said, we've got a long way
to go, but we're starting to see some trends moving
in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I mentioned at the very start of the program that
things have changed for the better, and I asked about
ram raids, and ram raids don't seemed to be a thing,
And everyone texted me and said, well, what about the
digger in the wire rapper the other day? But I
mean that aside. I mean the ram raid issue which
plagued us literally daily for months on it, and that
seems to be under control. Or am I wrong?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
No, No, you're right, And look, the reality of is
US crimes, they're going to go away completely. As long
as humans have been around, there's bad people that do
bad things. But you know, we'd reached, in my view,
a point in New Zealand where we should be able
to say that we're one of the safest countries in
the world and that tourists and people and retailers and
shopkeepers and their workers and people can go about their
(02:35):
lives feeling reasonably safe. And we were going we were
heading in the wrong direction. So it was time to
stop and reverse that. And I want to say that's
not attributal to me. I mean it's the fact that, yes,
I've got the privileged position of Minister, so I can
bring everyone together. The Orkan CBD is a good example
where we've brought the residents and rape pass groups together,
(02:56):
the business associations, social service providers, Mary Ward and CPS,
z KOMSD, Police, Saint John's, we've all come together, we've
been aligned. I had my latest meeting on Friday and
we've seen real success. So I've been going around the
country trying to pull that together and trying to get
some real change and it's happening.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Given what you're up against with Australia and recruitment, what
are our numbers and recruitment.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Like yet, So we're well on track to delivery now
five hundred. We've got a very strong pipeline of recruits
coming in. We've increased the numbers now at the college
to one hundred on the recruit wins. Yes, the Australians.
The Australians have been here for decades trying to recruit
our police officers and the reason is they've got their
own problems and our police officers are so good. But
(03:37):
the good news is we're not seeing huge numbers go
to Australia. Some will go, but most will stay.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Okay, New commissioner.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
When so an announcement around that is a minute?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
What's that day's weeks?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah? Days, so we'll be announcing the new.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do you know who it is as you sit and
talk to us now, yes, I'll just say the decision
has been.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Made, Yeah, it has. Yes, decisions we made.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, are you going to meet the protesters today?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Look, I think that it's important to go out and
meet the protest and there will be a group going
out on behalf of the government to do that. But
the makeup of that group I don't decide on.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
That, Okay, but that has been decided and you know
who they are.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I know some, but I don't know if there's been
a final decision.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Has there been any guarantee? And I think Seymour wanted
to guarantee if who's going and go out and meet
that people would actually be listening to and not yelled
down or sung down. Do you have that assurance or
are you just going out and taking your chances?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I don't know if we're seeking that assurance. But I mean,
if you're really serious about a genuine dialogue, then why
would you shout down people that have gone out to
meet you?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So I hope that doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Have you seen on social media the police painting signs
for the protesters.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yes, that was raised with me yesterday and my officials
meeting by the Commissioner, and we both agreed that in
terms of maintaining public confidence, it's very important that our
police service has been seen as politically neutral. But they've
got their own processes, et cetera to be able to
deal with those.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So is somebody taking care of that because that's not
politically neutral and it's not the job of a policeman
to paint science.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
No, that's right. So, yes, yes they are.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So they're being sorted out. Yes, what goes through a
police person's mind to do that.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Look, I don't want to I don't want to speculate
on that. All that I'd say is that especially young
police officers who probably aren't that politically engaged, but are
very engaged with their communities. And this is this is
the irony that I sort of find about this thing,
is that our police did an outstanding job over at
Podokey on the East Coast recently, completely taking down the
(05:56):
Mungl Bob barbarians who were wreaking havoc in some of
theial towns over there, particularly a Podokey, and immediately there
was a whole lot of very emotive rhetoric come out
from the party, Mary and others saying, you know, heavy
handed by the police.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
They're using the terms.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Raids, they called terrorists, rorism.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Terrorism, all this sort of stuff, heavily critical of our police, who,
by the way, that wasn't None of those allegations were true.
Our police do an outstanding job and yet when they
I don't hear any of them saying anything. When when
you see our police officers actually integrating with the community
and doing that sort of stuff, they are very good
(06:37):
at it. So I don't know what these young constables
were thinking, but they are young. They're not necessarily politically
you know, engaged. Most Kiwis, I say eighty percent of
Keys don't pay much attention to politics. However, the important
thing is that our police is seen to be political neutral.
It's critically important for maintaining public confidence and the police
(06:59):
can mus and the police are aware of it, and
they have got internal processes to be able to deal
with it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Appreciate time as always, Mike Mitchell for more from the mic,
asking breakfast listen live to news talks that'd be from
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Police minister was on the beat in the Capitol yesterday
spreaking the fact that crime is in a lot of
areas is down and perhaps we can argue that the
crime wave and sense of hopelessness we'd endured these past
several years might have finally come to an end. Remembering,
of course, the minister said things would improve or he
would quit anyway. Police Minister Marke Mitchell as well, it's
very good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning Mike.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Rhetoric versus the fact, to be fair to you, what
you do say, it's not over and there's a lot
of work, you know to do. What are the areas
that you are still concerned about.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
So basically the same things that we became in government.
It's the gangs, the fact that the numbers have grown,
the fact that they are a lot more violent, the
caring fiums are willing to use them, and just the
general misery and harm that are inflicting on the communities
that they're in. So big focus on gangs and you
would have seen that there's been some pretty tough policing
around the gangs, but we've got a lot more work
to do violent retail crime, So the violent part of
(00:53):
the retail crime where the real human cost sits, although
we're starting to see reduction on that again, a lot
more work to do, So yeah, those were probably those
were sort of the two major areas that we've really
been focused in home Din on.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Would you were you asked, actually yesterday, are you going
to resign to people to the media still has to
you about resigning or are you feeling confident within yourself
that you've done enough to defend your reputation and stay
in the job.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, there used to ask me that a lot at
the beginning of the term, at the beginning of this year,
but they've sort of they've stopped asking me about it.
But I just thought it was coming up two olve
months and it was important for me that I did
that to hold myself to account because we're in such
a bad place as a country that the expectation is
that whoever took over as police minister, it's a huge responsibility.
(01:39):
You've got to show that your things are changing. Otherwise
I wasn't the right guy for the job or the
right person for the job. So we are starting to
see change. Like I said, we've got a long way
to go, but we're starting to see some trends moving
in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I mentioned at the very start of the program that
things have changed for the better, and I asked about
ram raids, and ram raids don't seemed to be a thing,
And everyone texted me and said, well, what about the
digger in the wire rapper the other day? But I
mean that aside. I mean the ram raid issue which
plagued us literally daily for months on it, and that
seems to be under control. Or am I wrong?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
No, No, you're right, And look, the reality of is
US crimes, they're going to go away completely. As long
as humans have been around, there's bad people that do
bad things. But you know, we'd reached, in my view,
a point in New Zealand where we should be able
to say that we're one of the safest countries in
the world and that tourists and people and retailers and
shopkeepers and their workers and people can go about their
(02:35):
lives feeling reasonably safe. And we were going we were
heading in the wrong direction. So it was time to
stop and reverse that. And I want to say that's
not attributal to me. I mean it's the fact that, yes,
I've got the privileged position of Minister, so I can
bring everyone together. The Orkan CBD is a good example
where we've brought the residents and rape pass groups together,
(02:56):
the business associations, social service providers, Mary Ward and CPS,
z KOMSD, Police, Saint John's, we've all come together, we've
been aligned. I had my latest meeting on Friday and
we've seen real success. So I've been going around the
country trying to pull that together and trying to get
some real change and it's happening.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Given what you're up against with Australia and recruitment, what
are our numbers and recruitment.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Like yet, So we're well on track to delivery now
five hundred. We've got a very strong pipeline of recruits
coming in. We've increased the numbers now at the college
to one hundred on the recruit wins. Yes, the Australians.
The Australians have been here for decades trying to recruit
our police officers and the reason is they've got their
own problems and our police officers are so good. But
(03:37):
the good news is we're not seeing huge numbers go
to Australia. Some will go, but most will stay.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Okay, New commissioner.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
When so an announcement around that is a minute?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
What's that day's weeks?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah? Days, so we'll be announcing the new.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do you know who it is as you sit and
talk to us now, yes, I'll just say the decision
has been.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Made, Yeah, it has. Yes, decisions we made.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, are you going to meet the protesters today?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Look, I think that it's important to go out and
meet the protest and there will be a group going
out on behalf of the government to do that. But
the makeup of that group I don't decide on.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
That, Okay, but that has been decided and you know
who they are.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I know some, but I don't know if there's been
a final decision.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Has there been any guarantee? And I think Seymour wanted
to guarantee if who's going and go out and meet
that people would actually be listening to and not yelled
down or sung down. Do you have that assurance or
are you just going out and taking your chances?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I don't know if we're seeking that assurance. But I mean,
if you're really serious about a genuine dialogue, then why
would you shout down people that have gone out to
meet you?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So I hope that doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Have you seen on social media the police painting signs
for the protesters.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yes, that was raised with me yesterday and my officials
meeting by the Commissioner, and we both agreed that in
terms of maintaining public confidence, it's very important that our
police service has been seen as politically neutral. But they've
got their own processes, et cetera to be able to
deal with those.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So is somebody taking care of that because that's not
politically neutral and it's not the job of a policeman
to paint science.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
No, that's right. So, yes, yes they are.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So they're being sorted out. Yes, what goes through a
police person's mind to do that.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Look, I don't want to I don't want to speculate
on that. All that I'd say is that especially young
police officers who probably aren't that politically engaged, but are
very engaged with their communities. And this is this is
the irony that I sort of find about this thing,
is that our police did an outstanding job over at
Podokey on the East Coast recently, completely taking down the
(05:56):
Mungl Bob barbarians who were wreaking havoc in some of
theial towns over there, particularly a Podokey, and immediately there
was a whole lot of very emotive rhetoric come out
from the party, Mary and others saying, you know, heavy
handed by the police.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
They're using the terms.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Raids, they called terrorists, rorism.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Terrorism, all this sort of stuff, heavily critical of our police, who,
by the way, that wasn't None of those allegations were true.
Our police do an outstanding job and yet when they
I don't hear any of them saying anything. When when
you see our police officers actually integrating with the community
and doing that sort of stuff, they are very good
(06:37):
at it. So I don't know what these young constables
were thinking, but they are young. They're not necessarily politically
you know, engaged. Most Kiwis, I say eighty percent of
Keys don't pay much attention to politics. However, the important
thing is that our police is seen to be political neutral.
It's critically important for maintaining public confidence and the police
(06:59):
can mus and the police are aware of it, and
they have got internal processes to be able to deal
with it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Appreciate time as always, Mike Mitchell for more from the mic,
asking breakfast listen live to news talks that'd be from
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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