D-I-Y policing appalling says National

National's Police spokesman is staggered by reports of Auckland car crash victims being told to deal with the offenders themselves.

"This latest policy of do-it-yourself policing is appalling. It's proof that police in our largest city are so understaffed and under-resourced that people are being forced to mete out their own justice," says Tony Ryall.

"The Police Minister should resign. His ridiculous comments that police are doing "pretty well" with the current levels of staffing shows just how out of touch he is with the Auckland numbers crisis, and he's clearly not fit to represent the police.

"Failure by police to investigate crime in Auckland is a widespread problem. They are simply too busy. Recently, I heard of an Auckland supermarket owner paying private investigators to track down a robber because the police couldn't help. This is not unusual.

"But what is unusual is a Police Minister blindly unaware that policing in Auckland is failing.

"For three years now, National has been calling for urgent action on boosting police numbers, but all George Hawkins' can come up with is do-it-yourself crime busting.

"National wants a stronger focus on retaining police in the force and better leadership from the top. Currently, police should also be calling more on private security firms to provide support and back-up on lower level crimes," says Mr Ryall.

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