Mark Mitchell: Police Minister on the rise in anti-Police violence, tougher sentencing

The Police Minister says recent incidents where vehicles have been driven into officers are part of a rise of anti-Police violence. 

An officer has moderate injuries after being struck by a vehicle in Huntly on Wednesday night. 

It comes weeks after Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming was killed, and another officer was injured after being struck by a vehicle in Nelson on New Year's Day. 

Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking these kinds of incidents are happening more often around the world, including here in New Zealand. 

He says overall, the type of violent offending Police and first responders are having to deal with has been growing over the years. 

The Government is promising tougher sentences, Mitchell saying he’ll be introducing a bill to address these types of incidents by the end of next month. 

He says the bill will introduce tougher sentences, require cumulative rather than concurrent sentences, and clearly define emergency service workers. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got another police officer hit by a carbo so

(00:03):
we need to deal with this. This was an Huntley
on Wednesday. One office has got moderate injuries. Now this
is just a month after, of course, the senior Sergeant
Lynn Fleming was killed tragically in a similar fashion of
Nelson Police Minister Mark Mitchell with us on this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Uh this these two incidents, are they isolated? Do you
think one officer just happened to have happened close together
or we've got some sort of sick trend going on here.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, I hope that they are isolated and that it's
not a sick trend that we're going to see. But
if you look around the world, unfortunately these sort of
things are happening more regularly overall. You know, the type
of violent defending that our police and first responders have
had to deal with, we've seen growing over the years,
and we're working curiously hard in governments to try and

(00:47):
reverse it.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Does it mean the line has been crossed? In other words,
as mad as you may be, there was a line
about you know, attacking police people and that now seems
to be a bit blurred.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, I agree with you. I think that. I think that,
you know, the boundaries have changed and people are more
likely to get violent, whether it be verbally or physically,
not just with our police officers and first responders, but
with retail workers. You know, we have seen those lines blurred.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, so what do we need to do? Is there
a law that we can pass? It's like the King
hit thing out of Australia, isn't it. Is there something
specific legally we need to do?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah? So there is. We are. We've here on legislation.
Like I said, we're working on It's hard to get
it into the House as quickly as we can. Around
protection of our first responders and prison officers. There was
a bill that I picked up off Derek or when
he was in government last time. That was it literally
Wastection of first Responders and prison Officers bill. I couldn't

(01:45):
get picked that up in opposition. I couldn't get support
for that bill from the government party's Labor Greens to
party marriage so it didn't go through. So now we've
sort of picked that fill up. We obviously refining it,
doing some work on it. I'm working closely with Paul
Goldsmith on it, and we'll get back into the house
as quick as we.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Can refined in what sense, So if I run over
a policeman and the policeman's dead, what happens to me, Well.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
You're going to get So that's the we're going around
senencing and making sure that it seems a very clear
signal and it is preventative in terms of the seriousness
of the actual sentencing. So yes, there's a lot of
work done around tenencing, cumulative sentencing rather than concurrent, defining
emergency services workers, you know, and also being able to
have in the bill the ability to respond to what

(02:32):
you've identified as the changing threat levels for our frontline
and for our first responders. What's the timeframe on this, Well,
it's a priority, so definitely in the first quarter of
this year.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
All right, now go well. Marke Machill back next Wednesday
on The mic Asking Breakfast.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
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