SpeechPoliceCHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): The Minister of Police is now available for 45 minutes to respond to members' questions. Hon VANUSHI WALTERS (Chairperson of the Justice Committee): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to begin the annual review debate on the New Zealand Police for the 2021-22 year. I'd just begin by thanking the Justice Committee for its professional work on the review—thanking our clerks as well—but also thanking the New Zealand Police. We as a committee expressed our appreciation for all the work that the New Zealand Police do but particularly the front-line staff in terms of keeping us safe over the last year. We'd also express our appreciation to the Police Commissioner Andrew Coster; deputy commissioners; and the Police leadership.We tabled this report with the House on 30 March but the hearing was conducted on 15 December and what we learnt was that as of 30 June 2022 the Police employed 10342 constabulary staff 4292 non-constabulary staff and 265 recruits. We heard from the Police that the work of the New Zealand Police focuses on three goals: safe homes safe roads and safe communities. The work includes keeping the peace maintaining public safety enforcing the law and preventing crime but the Police also participate in policing activities out of New Zealand. They also participate in emergency management and national security.The Police in our discussion acknowledged a growing demand for their services and particularly for family harm and mental health responses. They explained that prioritising some responses over others is an established necessity. They noted that demand for services has always exceeded their available resources. They provided statistics from the Ministry of Justice's crime and victims survey which showed that nearly 80 percent of people believe the police effectively respond to serious crime and they told us that while there is a low average reporting rate there has been an increased reporting rate on family violence incidents and this really does demonstrate an increase in the trust in the police.We heard about the six Te Pae Oranga panels targeted at preventing youth offending and we asked what influence Te Pae Oranga panels could have in combatting the underlying factors driving youth crime. The Police told us that Te Pae Oranga panels have the ability to take a holistic approach to a youth offender and these panels will often address the wider influences on a youth offender that may have driven them to commit a crime. They told us that experience shows that young offenders are often more intimidated by being held to account by their community than by the traditional youth justice response.We noted that many retail businesses throughout New Zealand have been struggling with ram raids and the Police told us that offending levels for ram raids appear to be trending downwards from an August 2022 peak. They also told us they had brought 333 prosecutions and made 133 youth referrals from the 487 ram raids between January and October 2022. They said they are confident they are apprehending most of the offenders noting that an individual will often be involved in multiple offences.They told us about Operation Tauwhiro a nationwide operation aiming to disrupt and prevent firearms-related violence by criminal gangs and organised crime groups and it operates in conjunction with Operation Cobalt which aims to target unlawful behaviour and intimidation by gang members that threaten the community's sense of safety. Some members asked the Police—or they expressed a concern—about the scope of Operation Tauwhiro and asked the Police how many staff were assigned to it. The Police responded that Operation Tauwhiro is a whole-of-police operation.So we covered a lot of ground in the review and I would just like to end by thanking again the select committee for its robust and professional work. I look forward to the debate in the committee this evening and once again thank the Police for their work.