Collins Judith: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20398] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity first off to thank the Law and Order Committee for its courtesy and attendance on the day of the hearing for police. I also take the opportunity to thank the New Zealand Police both sworn and employee staff for all of the work they have done over the last year and that they will do in the next year. I thank them very much for the fact that every day they put their lives on the line for the rest of us and that every day they take options that many other people would choose not to have to take. I acknowledge very much that they do not have the luxury of being able to stand by and let something happen that might be a crime or somebody being injured; they have to get in and do the right thing. I thank them for it and I am sure that everybody in this Chamber would join me in that as well. 
The police are rolling out nationwide the Policing Excellence programme which is focusing very much on crime prevention and neighbourhood policing. It is really important that we make use of these highly trained professionals in the New Zealand Police to wherever possible prevent crime rather than be only reactive to it. Of course we do want them to catch the criminals as well after the event but best of all if we can prevent crime that is really what we are after. We now have more than 300 extra police in the Counties-Manukau Police District we have another 100 extra police around the rest of the country and another 200 are to be out on the beat by the end of this year. So that will be fulfilling an election promise of 600 more police across the country by the end of this year. With my colleagues we have been able to pass laws to give the police greater powers particularly around gang assets and to place the onus on offenders to prove where they got their ill-gotten gains. This has been a huge boost to the police particularly to their morale and confidence and we have seen them take to the legislation with great vigour. We have also seen great work between the police and the Customs Service in particular in relation to methamphetamine busts and we have seen a lot of that end up with some offenders being in prison for quite a long time—as they should be. 
We have also seen—despite all the naysayers when we said we would put extra police out on the streets—an actual reduction in crime. In the last calendar year we have seen a reduction in crime of about 6.7 percent across the country. In some parts of New Zealand we have seen some quite spectacular reductions in crime and every district in the country has had a reduction when it comes to a per capita basis although some are much smaller than others. I believe that that is a fantastic result particularly when so many people have said “Well there’s been a tough time in the economy. There’s been a recession. Won’t crime go up?” I have always said that it should not because people do not commit crimes in this country because they do not have money; they commit crimes because they are criminals. It has nothing to do with someone’s poverty status and if anyone disputes that they should just have a look at some of those failed finance companies and at some of the things that were going on there. That was not about poverty; that was about greed—and it always is. But we have seen too the police working much better with their communities and that is where the neighbourhood policing teams which I talked about today in the House in question time are really coming into their own. We have had six teams in Counties-Manukau which has made a huge difference and teams are being rolled out around the country. They will not be in every community; they will be in the target communities with the greatest needs. I think that that is smart policing. We are seeing some really great confidence in the police. 
I will also take the opportunity to welcome the new Commissioner of Police Peter Marshall who came on board on 3 April this year and also Deputy Commissioner of Police Mike Bush. They have joined Deputy Commissioner of Police Viv Rickard. They are a really great team who are putting their troops first who are expecting their troops to really come forward and think about what they are doing and who are expecting to get the very best out of them. They are also people who will stand up for their troops and I think that that is important. One of the things that we as a Parliament can do is to support the police in what they do. I think that many of us who talk to the victims of crime and who understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of burglaries of car thefts or of assaults understand what it is like for people who are victims of crime. I believe that the police’s new focus on victims will pay dividends as well. 
I have a lot of comments coming into my office about the New Zealand Police and the vast majority of them are fantastic. I am very proud of the police and I congratulate them on what they are about to do for the next year.