Newman Muriel: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Newman Muriel: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7225] 
8.  
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (ACT NZ) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Do the police have a national policy on traffic ticket quotas? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 No. However police do set performance standards to enforce the law. I am advised that when patrol staff are tasked with policing our roads it is not unreasonable to expect them to enforce the law—especially given that one in 12 drivers does not wear a seat belt and one in 10 drives at speed. Drivers actually need to break the law to get a ticket. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Does the Minister realise that while police are busy fulfilling his performance standards by issuing a quota of one traffic ticket per hour to largely law-abiding citizens criminals are busy converting four cars committing five violent crimes six drug offences seven burglaries and 15 thefts—a total of 50 recorded crimes an hour—and why does he not focus the police on catching real criminals and reducing real crime instead? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Because this Parliament has said that people who break road rules and laws should be apprehended. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: Why do police enforce speed limits so vigorously? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Police have implemented a policy to strictly enforce speed limits 10 kilometres over the limit. In Victoria Australia it is as low as 3 kilometres over the limit. That is because people involved in a crash at 120 kilometres an hour are twice as likely to die than they would be if a car was travelling at 100 kilometres an hour. Also a child hit by a car travelling 70 kilometres an hour has a 96 percent of chance of dying compared with a child hit at 50 kilometres an hour who has a 40 percent chance of surviving. 
Richard Worth 
: If there is no quota for traffic tickets why does the Police annual statement of intent set a goal of issuing between 275000 and 325000 tickets in 2003-04—or is there some difference between a quota and a goal? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The member must realise that the police cannot give anyone a ticket unless he or she breaks the law. The police are getting tough because we want the road toll to come down. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Is the Minister aware of and does he condone the informal internal police practice known as the “attitude test” whereby drivers who express disappointment at being detained at the side of the road are deliberately held for up to 15 minutes while police officers decide whether to give them a ticket and then let them go and how does he consider that that contributes to both road safety and positive police-community relationships? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I agree that it does not help those things at all. If the member knows of any cases like that he should report them to the Commissioner of Police. 
Peter Brown 
: Is the Minister aware that in some communities there is a concern that the quota system is prohibiting some members of the public from assisting police officers when they really need help in dealing with violent criminals? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I believe that all New Zealanders should make sure that they do not speed so that they do not kill people that they wear seatbelts that they do not drink when they drive and that they avoid all other traffic offences so that we can have a better New Zealand. 
Peter Brown 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s answer but he did not answer the question I asked. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I thought the Minister addressed the question very specifically. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: What does the Minister say to the mothers caught by armies of police as they drive their kids to school who get fined for forgetting to put their drivers’ licences in their dressing-gown pockets only to arrive back home to find their house burgled with a 19-hour wait for the police to get there? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The police enforce the law as they see it. If people choose to drive without a licence when taking their children to school they should be very careful indeed. Taking kids to school is an important job and it should be done safely.