September 15, 2024 • 9 mins
New statistics show a 22% reduction in serious assaults in Auckland CBD over the past year.
Auckland Council is reporting that crime in the city dropped 35%, and retail crime is down 50%.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell joins Tim Beveridge on The Weekend Collective to discuss.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News talks'd
be yes, And.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The government is celebrating a drop in the Auckland CBD
crime rates and there's less emergency housing being utilized now.
So new statistics show twenty two percent drop and serious
assaults in the Auckland CBD over the past year, eighteen
percent drop in serious assaults resulting in injury. It looks
as though recent changes to combat violent crime have been impactful.
But where to from here? And Police Minister Mark Mitchell
(00:32):
is with me now, Good afternoon. By the way, I
enjoyed that piece in the Herald about your nice good
bit of timing there reminiscing about the old days. Do
you do you think about those days much?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You know?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
The dogs? It's very nice of you. I haven't read that.
I've had some look, of course I do. I mean
I love my police and career and I love my
time on the dog section in the Aos and yeah,
so it was I've sort of been pushing that off
for a bit two months, but I finally willed to
be said, okay, I am.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Actually the photo of you with your dogs are man.
That was one big pooch whoa he's huge.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
He was. He was a big guy. Believe it. I
could feel it when I had to pick him up
and throw him over a fenceets for.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Real good stuff. Anyway, it's amusing here people go and
read it's a great, great profile piece on that mark.
But right now onto the serious stuff. So serious assaults
are down twenty two percent. Violent incidents like shootings and
stabbings are well, they're still in the headlines.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I guess the.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Question is mark your reaction to the stats, but also
are we feeling safer?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Look, we've still got a long way to go. We
acknowledged that. But the good news is, and we think
that we should actually highlight the fact that we've got
a much more joined up approach now in the way
that we're dealing with this. We've obviously focused on the
auction CVD because we've just seen so much andy soshal
and violent behavior and drug dealing and all the other
sort of stuff that has been deeply concerning to the
(01:57):
residents and obviously the shopkeepers and retailers, and so we
just seen we've seen some early results. It's too early
for celebration, but we're definitely moving in the right direction
and we know we've got more work to do.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Actually talk about that collaboration because I can imagine it's
it feels like the right thing to say, to talk
about the cooperation between police and social services. What do
you think the real the main cause of this reduction
in crime? Is it just cops on the beat or
is it the whole shebang?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
So it's a combination of things. The police could not
get on top of this problem by themselves and it
became very apparent to me as the incoming milit so
that everyone was off working in their own silos and
it wasn't joined up. So I have called a meeting.
It's Auckland COUNCILORSVIVED involved kind of or a ministry of
social development, residents and rape pays groups, Business Association's Heart
(02:49):
of the City, all of our social service providers, you
know our Mary Warden's CPNZ. Well we all come together
now I call that meeting and chare it once a month.
We're all working together with a joined up strategy and
it's working.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
As with the you and that's there. You've got twenty
one more officers in Auckland CBD on the beat. I
think is the presence of police on the beat. What's
the main point of that. Is it about us seeing
them and feeling safer, Is it about quick response time
or is it about the presence and reducing the impetus
for crime.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
That's definitely part of it, high visibility and reassurance. Without
a doubt, there is also a prevention element to it.
They possible get to know their patch, they take on
of shi it, they understand what the drivers of crime
are in the area. They get to know personally who
the people that are causing the problems, and it's been
very effective and we've seeing that in some of the
results now that are starting to flow through. You know,
(03:44):
I want to acknowledge the big constables through out there
doing that job. They've been been outstanding job. They've had
targets set for them, our meeting those targets, and the
feedback that I get from them, tim is that they're
actually totally enjoying it because the nature of police which
is that it can be very negative, whereas they're really
enjoying the public interaction and the positive feedback that they're getting.
(04:04):
So it's nice to see them back out there and
without a doubt, I mean, we're not reinventing the wheel here,
it's just back to basics police, and.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
What about rolling this approach out around the country and
other places? Are you looking at sort of? I mean,
obviously it's an operational decision up to a point, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
No, we are doing that. We're out of doubt. So
there's been additional beach staff put into both Wellington and
Canterbury and where we can. Of course, we want to
see a continued beat presence and our provincial towns and
our rural towns. No, it's not contained to Auckland at all.
But obviously there's been a big focus on just because
(04:43):
of the rapid deterioration over the last few years and
we had to reverse that.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Of course, we have had some terrible headlines. It seems
there's a shooting or a stabbing or something every week
or maybe even more frequently. Where are we at with
being able to get on top of that sort of
stuff and is that mostly gang related or what?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So it's been a very tough sort of ten days
two weeks in terms of the homicides that we've seen.
Most of those are contained. They're awful, but most of
them are contained. And by what by that. What I
mean is that the people know each other. It's not
necessarily out in the public. It could be awful domestic violence,
which of course we're able to do something around our
(05:22):
family harm, the rape of family harm in this country.
Or it might be gangs fighting with each other. But
without a doubt, we've seen you know that in the
last ten days, we've seen that real spike. The police
are working very hard, but of course they don't always
have the answer to these things. They are contained when
it might be a family violence type situation. But certainly
(05:43):
we're standing up our Social Investment Agency. We're starting to
get a lot more aligned with other agencies to try
and see the red flags and indicators and get in
there much earlier to prevent these sorts of thing Senter.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
What about minor assaults? Where we are we at with that?
Because you see you bus drivers are soldiers here, someone's
punched in a park somewhere else Where are we at
with the minor assaults? Or now, don't I say minor
but they're not serious.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Look, I can't give you the dath on minor assaults.
I know that we've seen ram raids, aggravated robberies and
knife crime come down for acervative robberies down about ten percent,
knife crime down about ten percent, but still an unacceptable
rate of general assaults. You're on our buses which were
seeing and look, we just sort of we take this
(06:26):
here at tolerance to it and and you know, these
are the things that we're really focused on on. Fire
free up police hours, get them focused back on their
core role, and you know, and we just but we look,
there's been a huge growth over the last six years.
I'm not trying to diminish the job that we've got
in front of us, but the good but the good
thing is as we're starting to see some early positive results.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Uh just don't know on my personal side of things,
like so, I've had a big response from parents and
my daughter's school group because they were subject on an
assault where we put out this thing for all the kids,
do you want to do a self defense course? Every
parent and every kid said yes, which back when I
was growing up, we never would have dreamed about it.
So where are we at with with trying to get
(07:11):
on top of that. I don't know whether it's just
an impression, but it feels that society, regardless of the
stabbings is just more violent. There's more violent assaults. Is
more the casual nature of it. What's your take on.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
That, Well, I think there is a casual nature to
it because not one, there's been no consequences. Number two,
when you look at the social media and content that
young people are sort of engaging with now, and the
fact that we've just got to implement standards and so
that you know, I'm sorry, like I said to you,
a zero tolerance towards any type of assault, which is
(07:45):
what we should be. That's the position we should be
taken as a society, and slowly we'll start to roll
this stuff back. You need very strong leaderships, leadership within
the schools, You need parents to step up and support that.
You need strong leadership through your central government agencies, from
local government, from community based organizations to be for us
ought to be aligned to say, you know what, we're
(08:06):
going to adopt some standards of this country, and one
of them is that assaulting people is no longer acceptable.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Is that anything you need to specifically legislate for with
the courts.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Around consequences, we are having to do that. We're making
changes to the sentence in act. We're saying that we're
going to cap discounts to forty percent because we felt
very strongly as the incoming government that the seriousness of
the offending was not being reflected in the consequences and
the sentences. So yes, we are having to make some
changes to legislation now.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And new powers for police. What's on the horizon.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So there's some new powers for police that should be
really in November. It's a suite of new powers around
the policing gangs, anty social behavior, taking over public roads,
intimidation of the public. Of course, we're banning their gang patches.
We're going to have non consulting orders which will stop
them from being able to get organized around the next
(09:03):
and the furious activities. So yes, there are a suite
of new laws coming out, new pairs for police.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Excellent. Well, it's good to celebrate some results on that
serious crime stuff. So I appreciate your time, staff.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Non Mark, thanks handing me on.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Cheers, Thanks very much. Yeah, go get a copy of
the new's thee on Herold. It's a good piece. It's
an interesting piece, just talking about his time and the
Umdefender Squad and the dog squad. But I'll tell you
what you check out that photo of him next to
his dogs. Are that dog was?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
For more from the Weekend Collective. Listen live to news
talks It'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News talks'd
be yes, And.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The government is celebrating a drop in the Auckland CBD
crime rates and there's less emergency housing being utilized now.
So new statistics show twenty two percent drop and serious
assaults in the Auckland CBD over the past year, eighteen
percent drop in serious assaults resulting in injury. It looks
as though recent changes to combat violent crime have been impactful.
But where to from here? And Police Minister Mark Mitchell
(00:32):
is with me now, Good afternoon. By the way, I
enjoyed that piece in the Herald about your nice good
bit of timing there reminiscing about the old days. Do
you do you think about those days much?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You know?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
The dogs? It's very nice of you. I haven't read that.
I've had some look, of course I do. I mean
I love my police and career and I love my
time on the dog section in the Aos and yeah,
so it was I've sort of been pushing that off
for a bit two months, but I finally willed to
be said, okay, I am.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Actually the photo of you with your dogs are man.
That was one big pooch whoa he's huge.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
He was. He was a big guy. Believe it. I
could feel it when I had to pick him up
and throw him over a fenceets for.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Real good stuff. Anyway, it's amusing here people go and
read it's a great, great profile piece on that mark.
But right now onto the serious stuff. So serious assaults
are down twenty two percent. Violent incidents like shootings and
stabbings are well, they're still in the headlines.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I guess the.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Question is mark your reaction to the stats, but also
are we feeling safer?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Look, we've still got a long way to go. We
acknowledged that. But the good news is, and we think
that we should actually highlight the fact that we've got
a much more joined up approach now in the way
that we're dealing with this. We've obviously focused on the
auction CVD because we've just seen so much andy soshal
and violent behavior and drug dealing and all the other
sort of stuff that has been deeply concerning to the
(01:57):
residents and obviously the shopkeepers and retailers, and so we
just seen we've seen some early results. It's too early
for celebration, but we're definitely moving in the right direction
and we know we've got more work to do.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Actually talk about that collaboration because I can imagine it's
it feels like the right thing to say, to talk
about the cooperation between police and social services. What do
you think the real the main cause of this reduction
in crime? Is it just cops on the beat or
is it the whole shebang?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
So it's a combination of things. The police could not
get on top of this problem by themselves and it
became very apparent to me as the incoming milit so
that everyone was off working in their own silos and
it wasn't joined up. So I have called a meeting.
It's Auckland COUNCILORSVIVED involved kind of or a ministry of
social development, residents and rape pays groups, Business Association's Heart
(02:49):
of the City, all of our social service providers, you
know our Mary Warden's CPNZ. Well we all come together
now I call that meeting and chare it once a month.
We're all working together with a joined up strategy and
it's working.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
As with the you and that's there. You've got twenty
one more officers in Auckland CBD on the beat. I
think is the presence of police on the beat. What's
the main point of that. Is it about us seeing
them and feeling safer, Is it about quick response time
or is it about the presence and reducing the impetus
for crime.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
That's definitely part of it, high visibility and reassurance. Without
a doubt, there is also a prevention element to it.
They possible get to know their patch, they take on
of shi it, they understand what the drivers of crime
are in the area. They get to know personally who
the people that are causing the problems, and it's been
very effective and we've seeing that in some of the
results now that are starting to flow through. You know,
(03:44):
I want to acknowledge the big constables through out there
doing that job. They've been been outstanding job. They've had
targets set for them, our meeting those targets, and the
feedback that I get from them, tim is that they're
actually totally enjoying it because the nature of police which
is that it can be very negative, whereas they're really
enjoying the public interaction and the positive feedback that they're getting.
(04:04):
So it's nice to see them back out there and
without a doubt, I mean, we're not reinventing the wheel here,
it's just back to basics police, and.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
What about rolling this approach out around the country and
other places? Are you looking at sort of? I mean,
obviously it's an operational decision up to a point, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
No, we are doing that. We're out of doubt. So
there's been additional beach staff put into both Wellington and
Canterbury and where we can. Of course, we want to
see a continued beat presence and our provincial towns and
our rural towns. No, it's not contained to Auckland at all.
But obviously there's been a big focus on just because
(04:43):
of the rapid deterioration over the last few years and
we had to reverse that.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Of course, we have had some terrible headlines. It seems
there's a shooting or a stabbing or something every week
or maybe even more frequently. Where are we at with
being able to get on top of that sort of
stuff and is that mostly gang related or what?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So it's been a very tough sort of ten days
two weeks in terms of the homicides that we've seen.
Most of those are contained. They're awful, but most of
them are contained. And by what by that. What I
mean is that the people know each other. It's not
necessarily out in the public. It could be awful domestic violence,
which of course we're able to do something around our
(05:22):
family harm, the rape of family harm in this country.
Or it might be gangs fighting with each other. But
without a doubt, we've seen you know that in the
last ten days, we've seen that real spike. The police
are working very hard, but of course they don't always
have the answer to these things. They are contained when
it might be a family violence type situation. But certainly
(05:43):
we're standing up our Social Investment Agency. We're starting to
get a lot more aligned with other agencies to try
and see the red flags and indicators and get in
there much earlier to prevent these sorts of thing Senter.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
What about minor assaults? Where we are we at with that?
Because you see you bus drivers are soldiers here, someone's
punched in a park somewhere else Where are we at
with the minor assaults? Or now, don't I say minor
but they're not serious.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Look, I can't give you the dath on minor assaults.
I know that we've seen ram raids, aggravated robberies and
knife crime come down for acervative robberies down about ten percent,
knife crime down about ten percent, but still an unacceptable
rate of general assaults. You're on our buses which were
seeing and look, we just sort of we take this
(06:26):
here at tolerance to it and and you know, these
are the things that we're really focused on on. Fire
free up police hours, get them focused back on their
core role, and you know, and we just but we look,
there's been a huge growth over the last six years.
I'm not trying to diminish the job that we've got
in front of us, but the good but the good
thing is as we're starting to see some early positive results.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Uh just don't know on my personal side of things,
like so, I've had a big response from parents and
my daughter's school group because they were subject on an
assault where we put out this thing for all the kids,
do you want to do a self defense course? Every
parent and every kid said yes, which back when I
was growing up, we never would have dreamed about it.
So where are we at with with trying to get
(07:11):
on top of that. I don't know whether it's just
an impression, but it feels that society, regardless of the
stabbings is just more violent. There's more violent assaults. Is
more the casual nature of it. What's your take on.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
That, Well, I think there is a casual nature to
it because not one, there's been no consequences. Number two,
when you look at the social media and content that
young people are sort of engaging with now, and the
fact that we've just got to implement standards and so
that you know, I'm sorry, like I said to you,
a zero tolerance towards any type of assault, which is
(07:45):
what we should be. That's the position we should be
taken as a society, and slowly we'll start to roll
this stuff back. You need very strong leaderships, leadership within
the schools, You need parents to step up and support that.
You need strong leadership through your central government agencies, from
local government, from community based organizations to be for us
ought to be aligned to say, you know what, we're
(08:06):
going to adopt some standards of this country, and one
of them is that assaulting people is no longer acceptable.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Is that anything you need to specifically legislate for with
the courts.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Around consequences, we are having to do that. We're making
changes to the sentence in act. We're saying that we're
going to cap discounts to forty percent because we felt
very strongly as the incoming government that the seriousness of
the offending was not being reflected in the consequences and
the sentences. So yes, we are having to make some
changes to legislation now.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And new powers for police. What's on the horizon.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So there's some new powers for police that should be
really in November. It's a suite of new powers around
the policing gangs, anty social behavior, taking over public roads,
intimidation of the public. Of course, we're banning their gang patches.
We're going to have non consulting orders which will stop
them from being able to get organized around the next
(09:03):
and the furious activities. So yes, there are a suite
of new laws coming out, new pairs for police.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Excellent. Well, it's good to celebrate some results on that
serious crime stuff. So I appreciate your time, staff.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Non Mark, thanks handing me on.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Cheers, Thanks very much. Yeah, go get a copy of
the new's thee on Herold. It's a good piece. It's
an interesting piece, just talking about his time and the
Umdefender Squad and the dog squad. But I'll tell you
what you check out that photo of him next to
his dogs. Are that dog was?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
For more from the Weekend Collective. Listen live to news
talks It'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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