30 August 2005

Destiny New Zealand Confronts Police Minister

Former South Auckland Police Sergeant and Destiny New Zealand Leader, Richard Lewis, faced off with Police Minister George Hawkins in a debate held at Manurewa last night.

Mr Hawkins contended that police were adequately resourced to perform core functions.

"Morale and confidence is down because of sheer frustration with a government that is ignorant to the realities of policing. The goodwill of our men and women on the frontlines can last for only so long. Government must acknowledge the frontline demands and address them accordingly," said Mr Lewis.

To that end, Destiny New Zealand Policies for Law & Order include:

1. Increasing police frontline staff by 1,300 with an immediate injection of 550 new staff, to achieve parity with other western nation police to population ratios

2. Ensuring Police have sufficient budget resource with flexibility to allocate that resource according to frontline demands 3.
Pursuing measures to recover experienced police officers in roles of serious crime investigation, response, training and mentoring

ENDS

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