Despite the Police Minister’s desperate claims that her Government is going after gangs, data shows that more than half of the charges under Operation Cobalt are for minor offences like traffic fines, National’s Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell says.

“Gang membership is up 70 per cent under Labour, coinciding with a 33 per cent increase in violent crime.

“Over a stretch of just 17 days recently, New Zealand experienced as many firearms homicides as it usually does in six months.

“In light of these damning statistics, the Police Minister continues to claim that her Government’s actions are making New Zealand safer - citing the charges against gang members as a result of Operation Cobalt.

“The reality is that more than half of the charges under Operation Cobalt are for dishonesty, traffic offences, or administrative offences.

“When the Labour Government is boasting about cracking down on gangs by slapping them with a traffic fine, it’s no wonder that a recent Curia poll showed that 64 per cent of Kiwis think that the criminal justice system has gotten worse in the last six years.

“New Zealanders do not trust Labour to keep them safe. National is the only party that will restore law and order in New Zealand.”

A National government will:

• Ban gang patches in public places.
• Allow police to issue dispersal notices where gang members come together in public to intimidate, threaten, and sometimes assault members of the public.
• Giving police non-association powers to prevent gang members from communicating and planning criminal activity.
• Equip police with the warrantless search powers they need to take the guns out of the hands of violent armed gang members.
• Make membership of a gang an aggravating factor at sentencing.
• https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2308/Cobalt_Breakdown.pdf

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