Show Us Some Leadership, Minister

ACT New Zealand Police Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman today welcomed Eastern Bay of Plenty Police Chief Inspector Jim Marshall for taking a pro-active approach to Taneatua's gang problems, and recommended that Police Minister George Hawkins follow Mr Marshall's example.

"While I welcome Mr Marshall's comments yesterday, it is absolutely outrageous that a lone police chief must take the lead in beginning a proper war on gangs when the Minister - whose role is to show leadership of the police - has done nothing," Dr Newman said.

"ACT has long stated that police need the mandate, resources and leadership to take a zero tolerance approach to organised gang crime. The laws are there, and the police are willing, but so far the Government has failed to join the campaign.

"Mr Hawkins was extremely vocal on the gangs issue, using it as a platform as Opposition spokesman for police. Once his soft-on-crime party became Government, however, the fire his belly seems to have dwindled to little more than an ember.

"A huge proportion of crime in this country is organised and committed by criminal gangs, and New Zealanders have had enough. We already have laws in place to deal to criminal gangs - they just need to be enforced.

"I am calling on the Minister to do more than just talk tough, and to support Inspector Marshall - and others like him - who knows the public deserves better protection, and to adopt a zero tolerance approach to criminal gangs," Dr Newman said.

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