Paul Basham: Police Assistant Commissioner says public are already reporting gang patch sightings a day after ban began

The public are already reporting gang patch sightings a day after the ban began.

New Police powers let officers disperse gatherings, and gang insignia is banned in public.

More than a dozen gang members have already been arrested under the new law - including an Auckland Head Hunters leader.

Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham told Heather du Plessis-Allan they're being informed about breaches in multiple ways.

“We’ve said that when this sort of stuff comes through, we’ll follow it up as quickly as we can, and today’s search warrant is a case in point where something was reported in the early hours after the law came into affect.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The number of gang members charged in the forty one
hours since the Gang Patch Band came into effect is
now sitting at around about twelve. Among them the head
Hunter's president in west Auckland, who was arrested in his
pjas during an early morning raid this morning. Assistant Police
Commissioner Paul Basham's with me. Now, Hey, Paul, Hi, how
are you very well?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Paul? Do you reckon that the gangs were expecting you
guys to go this hard and actually track them down
to their houses to get the patches off them.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, we've said right from the very beginning through this
period of engagement that we would be consistent in the
way that we took in Frost connection time if we
could deal with it at the time, was subsequently when
it was safe to do so, well, when we were
following up reports of breaches of the Gangs Act. So
for us, this is us following through on exactly what

(00:45):
we said we were doing, sending a clear message that
the people are going to break the law or breach
the Gang Act in the way that he has secured
up to this point. We will follow through that they
can expect us to take enforced conection.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
How Are you guys aware that they are doing this,
are you actually seeing are your officers seeing them, or
are you getting tips from the public.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's a variety of things. It's a variety in the
way that all sorts of crime and incidents are reported
to us through sort of common channels. So yeah, it's
not just one thing. It comes in different ways. But
we've said that when this sort of stuff comes through,
we'll follow up as quickly as we can. In today's search.
Once is a case in point where something was reported
in the early hours after the law came into effect.

(01:28):
We were able to make those inquiries, sort of draw
those dots together, as it were, and get out and
do those once this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Do you want us to do that? If we're driving
down State Highway one and we see a gang member
or a bunch of gang members being clowns about it,
do you want us to call it in?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Absolutely? You know, it's like they're breaking the law, and
we would expect people to make good judgments, just like
they would if they observed any other breach of the law.
I mean, we've been also sort of sending messages around
certainly if they are frightened or they're seeing something that's
kind of violent to arrest the safety they will start
a triple one. If it's something that's historical, they can

(02:06):
call one oh five or reported online. So all of
those normal channels and all those normal judgments that people
use all the time, and they make common sense decisions
around what they want to report to us.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
How many of these cases and how many of these
cases have you found when you go around to the
house to get the patch, gangs, guns and other stolen
stuff and things like that.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well it's literally in terms of you know, you know,
going down on the search WAPs. Most of the enforcement
action that we've taken to date, there's occurred in a
public place where we've been able to move to an arrest,
and we've seize the patch in a public place subsequent
to bet arrest. But you know, it's not uncommon for
us to go through the front door or the door
getting associated address for one reason and stumble across, you know,

(02:48):
or detect criminal offending on other grounds. So that's always possible,
And you know, I think this is partly why members
are encouraged to make good choices. One because want them
to obey the law, but the particularly have an interest
in doing that because they don't really want the heat
and other parts of their criminal enterprise.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Good stuff. Hey, Paul, thanks very much, appreciate it. That's
Paul Basham, Assistant Police Commissioner.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
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