Wilkinson Kate: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Wilkinson Kate: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4174] 
KATE WILKINSON (National) 
: 
 If we look at the police’s mission statement we see that it is “To serve the community by reducing the incidence and effects of crime detecting and apprehending offenders maintaining law and order and enhancing public safety.” and that is exactly what we should expect. But whereabouts in that mission statement does it talk about host responsibility? The latest course created by the Government is to send our hard-working front-line policemen and policewomen on a course run by KiwiHost to provide “customer experience management programmes”. That 3-day training course at a cost of $900 per person covers such things as “avoiding the dangers of too much knowledge”—not a problem of the Labour Government I would have to say—“learning techniques for switching an angry customer into a satisfied one using the smile mirror understanding how to use complaints as a gift and learning about managing moments of truth”. This course is for the hospitality industry not for our police force. Our police are not there to learn silver service so that they can correctly wait on tables in the police cells and to know how to serve from the left and take from the right. Our police are there to maintain law and order— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: What! 
KATE WILKINSON 
: —I know what—to reduce crime nonetheless and to detect offenders yet this Government is teaching them silver service. 
Our police force is even given ticketing quotas as “a great opportunity to get our ticket count up to ensure we end up as the top group.” But that policy does not even send our policemen and policewomen to traffic blackspots to reduce traffic accidents or the road toll—no. It is not just to keep our roads safe; they are sent to already safe areas such as the corner of McFaddens Road and Cranford Street in Christchurch— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I know it well. 
KATE WILKINSON 
: The member should know it well and he should be careful of the flush median strip because in 1 day 16 tickets were issued at a cost of $150 each. In fact 30 tickets in 1 month in Christchurch were issued to drivers using a flush median strip on the road in order to make a right-hand turn so as not to disrupt the flow of traffic. They were issued tickets for allegedly overtaking on a flush median strip yet they were not even breaking the law. And this is where our valuable police resources are being spent. We have already heard that the Labour Government has been caught out deceiving the public over the existence of traffic ticket targets and competitions. So while the real criminals are getting away with serious crime ordinary law-abiding citizens are being charged for lawfully using a flush median strip to turn right. It is all because of this Government’s directive to get the ticket quota up because that is easy; that is measurable. 
But it is far too hard for this Government to come up with any policy to actually reduce proper crime and to defend and protect the public of New Zealand. Members of our sworn police force want to defend and protect our public but instead have been turned into ticket collectors or even into waiters learning silver service. That is another valuable resource squandered—another valuable resource wasted—by this Labour Government. 
Figures show that last year police attended only 83 percent of burglaries within 24 hours compared with 85 percent and 86 percent in previous years; that of the 12 police districts eight were either worse or showed no improvement at all; and that in Auckland City the percentage attended within 24 hours has dropped from 80 percent to 73 percent while in Canterbury it has dropped from 83 percent to 75 percent. I know from personal experience because my law-abiding office was burgled last week and it took until the next day for me even to see a policeman—actually it was a policewoman. In those areas a quarter of all reported burglaries—and ours in the office was reported—are not attended by the police within 24 hours. The number of reported burglaries increased in 2005 to 58133. There is a problem; it is about priorities.