Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:618;Page:13843] 
3.  
RON MARK (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Does he consider the current staffing levels of both sworn and non-sworn police to be adequate; if so why? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 Generally yes. 
Ron Mark 
: Is it not true that despite all of the Minister’s claims that he is resolving staffing issues on 29 September 2002 a member of the Southern Communications Centre wrote to him expressing concerns about escalating workloads the lack of available units for dispatch and his frustration at not being able to dispatch a unit to an elderly lady in need of help despite the fact that he had seven highway patrol cars in the area that were specifically restricted only to issuing tickets? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The answer to the second part of the question is that highway patrols are not restricted to giving out tickets. The Southern Communications Centre has the staff it requires at the moment but the commissioner has put in additional funding this year and there will be more staff as they get trained later on this year. 
Brian Connell 
: Why when the Minister knew of the contents of the letter that Mr Mark referred to in which the writer clearly stated that the Southern Communications Centre was overstretched and that someone was going to get hurt has the Minister not done something about it; or does someone have to die before this Minister will be stung into action? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I can tell that member that the performance of the southern control centre has improved to near to or better than its target. Ninety percent of priority 1 events are dispatched within 2 minutes sick leave has halved since February and there were no occupational safety and health reports in March and April which is the latest information I have. I think the police are doing a great job and people are safer because of them. 
Mahara Okeroa 
: How do police staffing levels and resources compare between December 1999 when this Government took office and now? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: In December 1999 there was a total of 8767 police staff. The latest figure I have now shows a total of 9710. As well in that time technology has improved. For example police now identify people from crime scenes where DNA samples are found and collected in nearly 50 percent of those cases. Two hundred and eighty thousand palm prints have been added to the police computer matching system. It is expected that that will result in between 7000 and 10000 cases being resolved and I am hopeful that last year’s 43.7 percent resolution rate for crime which is a record will become even better in future. We are winning the war on crime. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: What is the Minister doing to make better use of existing staff—for example in developing policies to ensure a more expanded and more consistent use of diversion as recommended by the Health Committee inquiry in order to reduce police time in court? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The commissioner and his staff are continually trying to improve their performance and they get support from this Government. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not usually raise these kinds of points of order but I am not sure whether the Minister addressed my question at all. I asked what the Minister was doing to make better use of existing staff and I gave an example that was a specific recommendation of a select committee. I am not sure whether the Minister addressed the question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Perhaps the Minister may like to make a brief comment. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I said that the commissioner is always trying to get staff standards to improve. That is what he is doing and I support him in that. 
Marc Alexander 
: Does the Minister consider police front-line staffing levels to be limited by resource considerations or to be needs-based in response to current high crime levels; and if it is the latter then why are victims of burglary considered lucky if the police can actually attend to such crimes rather than being prioritised to higher-level offences? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I want to put the member right. Crime is in decline; it is dropping away. The rate of crime is on the way down. No matter how many times people get up here and ask questions that imply it is going up it is going down. If the member wants the official figures I will supply them to him. 
Peter Brown 
: Does the Minister share New Zealand First’s view that it would be more effective and more efficient to split our police into two segments—general policing and traffic policing—along the lines being currently proposed in Britain; and if he does not agree with that is he saying that both New Zealand First and the British have got it wrong? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I would say that New Zealand First has got it wrong. 
Peter Brown 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No the Minister addressed the question. The member cannot insist on every single thing in the question being addressed. The Minister addressed the question. 
Brian Connell 
: How does the Minister reconcile the answers he has given today with his acknowledgment at last week’s Law and Order Committee meeting that he knew the Southern Communications Centre was understaffed and overstretched and that 111 calls were being missed; and given that information why has the Minister not budgeted for more staff as he told the Law and Order Committee that he was going to do? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: That member has a short memory span. When I told him there were more on the way there were more on the way. 
Ron Mark 
: Does the Minister think it is acceptable that in the last 5 years emergency calls to the police have increased by 50 percent whereas communications centre staffing has decreased by 2.11 percent and is he concerned by a report that states: “A 10-hour shift without regular breaks is detrimental to health especially to pregnant women dispatchers who cannot even find time to go to the toilet”; if he is concerned about that why did he not act on that correspondence which he received on 29 September 2002? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: One must first wonder why it took until now—halfway through 2004—for the member to raise the matter. However worse than that his facts are not correct. Ninety percent of priority 1 calls are dispatched within 2 minutes. It is interesting to note that the workload of the communications centres is changing. The Auckland communications centre has over 39 percent of its calls originate from cellphones dialling 555 because of traffic matters.