Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
19 JANUARY 2015

Police Blue Line Stretched Too Far

New Zealand First says the New Zealand police thin blue line is getting stretched thinner and the statistics prove it.

“New Zealand First has obtained statistics from the police which show over four weekends in April last year Motueka did not have a single policeman rostered on duty in the town,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“That’s appalling and this is just one example of what is happening up and down the country.

“Wanaka, a busy tourism town that is cut off from Queenstown by the Crown Range and has Cromwell 53km away, had only two staff rostered on each day of those four weekends. What if there was a major incident involving tourists? How would New Zealand look then?

“The plain fact is that police per population is down under National. The police are concentrating their rostered staff in bigger centres at the expense of small towns and as this scenario continues they are being caught out. Saying the bigger centres can cover the smaller towns is simply not true. They can’t and they are not.

“These police shortages are happening in my own electorate of Northland. On two of the days over those four weekends, Kaitaia, with a population of around 5000, was down to two rostered staff.

“The police system to manage HR requirements is called ‘Peoplesoft’. We say it’s ‘Policesoft’ – and it’s the smaller centres that have to bear the brunt of increased insecurity.”

ENDS

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