Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:624;Page:19640] 
7.  
RON MARK (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Are detectives being reassigned from investigative duties to undertake traffic policing; if so why? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 I am advised that detectives are not reassigned from their primary duties. They are police officers and they will deal with offences as they are detected which may include traffic policing. 
Ron Mark 
: Would it concern the Minister to know that senior members of the police force are becoming so fed up with the barrage of misinformation from his office that they are writing to me personally to alert me to the fact that investigators are being pulled off their normal duties to do traffic duties like manning checkpoints “at a time when a large amount of serious crime is not being investigated because there are not enough investigators to go around.”? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: There may be some police who will write to that member but I can tell him that the crime rate is dropping. It dropped 8.2 percent last year and the police are doing very well. 
Dr Richard Worth 
: Why with at least 2000 unassigned cases piling up in police stations around the country will the police not ease up on issuing minor traffic tickets and focus on responding to serious criminal activity? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I would like to remind that member that our road toll is very high and if the police think that that is the best way of getting it down then I fully support them—unlike the National Party which does not support the police. 
Paul Adams 
: Has the Minister seen United Future’s policy to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated police and traffic enforcement with a view to deciding whether traffic police should have a separate division; and does he agree that such an evaluation is urgently needed in light of growing concerns about police priorities and resources? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: No. 
Ron Mark 
: How can the Minister not be concerned when senior members of the police force are condemning the Government’s ring-fencing agenda as being so restrictive that area commanders are insisting that investigators do not obtain search warrants in relation to drug offences as the investigation of drug offences is not a priority area assigned to that district where quite interestingly enough traffic policing is? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: There might be some disgruntled police officers who may write to members but most police are happy in doing the job and in getting crime down. The rate of crime has dropped 8.2 percent over the last 12 months. Perhaps the member has not noticed that and perhaps he might change his attitude and start supporting the New Zealand Police. 
Ron Mark 
: Why does the Minister continue to crow about police statistics when senior investigators reject them as “being deliberately manipulated to show both an increased resolution level and a decrease in reported crime”; and is it not a fact that when dealing with dishonesty offences committed by juvenile offenders for example officers are being told to record such offences using youth incident codes rather than dishonesty offence codes—which removes the offending from the official crime statistics? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The way crime statistics are gathered has not changed for a number of years.