One of the Government’s flagship responses to New Zealand’s growing gang violence is little more than window dressing, National’s Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell says.

“Police Minister Poto Williams repeatedly cites Operation Tauwhiro as a strong government response to gangs and gang violence. But the reality is Operation Tauwhiro is simply business as usual,” Mitchell says.

“Police have confirmed to the New Zealand Herald that they cannot say how many of the 1531 firearms seized from gangs since the operation was launched were as a direct result of Operation Tauwhiro, rather than routine police responses or other routine investigations.

“The Minister confirmed this approach in an answer to written questions from National.

"This creates a false impression that Operation Tauwhiro is responsible for the numbers provided when in fact most of those numbers would have been achieved even if Tauwhiro didn't exist.

"It captures everything the staff were already doing. Front line police officers have been instructed to record any interaction with gang members, guns seized or warrants executed against Operation Tauwhiro.

“In short, there is nothing special about Operation Tauwhiro and all it has done is pull existing data and present it in a way to make it seem that this Government is doing something.

“This appears to be a cynical attempt to convince the public that something significant had been done to deal with the growing gang problem.

“With only 43 dedicated staff working on Operation Tauwhiro the Government was never serious about cracking down on gangs.

“With gang membership up over 40 per cent and violent crime up 21 per cent, gang tensions are absolutely increasing under this Labour Government. Minister Williams only needs to read the news to see this.”

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