9. Question No. 9—PoliceARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 9—Police9 ARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa) to the Minister of Police: What actions have Police taken to crack down on retail and organised crime?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN (Minister of Police): This Government continues to take action to assist police in tackling persistent youth offending and to hold to account those gang members and organised crime syndicates that peddle their misery and methamphetamine to our communities. There's plenty more to do but this Government takes backing the police and tackling crime seriously. This includes continued roll-out of the Retail Crime Prevention Programme and the fog canon subsidy scheme the introduction yesterday of the ram raids offending bill and also supporting police with the resources and the laws they need to continue to crack down on organised crime. It's very easy to talk a big game in this House but this Government continues to deliver the rules and the tools to support police in their work to crack down on retail and organised crime. Arena Williams: How will new legislation help police?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: Yesterday this Government introduced the Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill to give further tools to police and the justice system to crack down on persistent youth offending. The new ram raid offence is modelled on the existing offence of burglary and will carry a maximum 10-year sentence of imprisonment. Where it does differ is that police now have the discretion to charge 12- and 13-year-olds in the Youth Court where previously this wasn't possible. The bill also makes it an aggravating factor in the Sentencing Act to live stream an offence and for an adult to use a child or a young person to commit a crime. Arena Williams: How are police helping to support retailers? Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: The Government has continued to support retailers through both the Retail Crime Prevention Programme and the fog canon subsidy scheme. To date 16 August the fog canon subsidy scheme has seen the installation of 1867 fog canons into small retailer areas and also a further 137 are booked in. The Retail Crime Prevention Programme has also aided 586 retailers with a total of 2198 security interventions including 519 fog canons 421 security sirens 479 alarms and 423 CCTV systems and system upgrades. These interventions are making a difference. While ram raids do remain too high I am always wanting to see that the numbers keep tracking down as we have seen in the past two months. Arena Williams: What reports has the Minister seen on the success of police charges for serious offences as part of Operation Cobalt?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: Operation Cobalt remains a driving force in supressing and also disrupting organised crime and gang-related activity within our communities. As of 17 August police have laid 48814 charges which includes offences such as burglary theft fraud breaches of bail reckless driving driving while disqualified careless driving and drink driving. These are serious offences and police are rightfully prioritising holding gang members to account—and also affiliates to account. It's a shame that some people talk down this work in describing these serious offences as minor charges.