Police, courts to get greater powers in gang crackdown
Gang patches will be banned in public and police given extra powers to stop gang members congregating under new legislation announced by the coalition government.
The crackdown was first signalled in September as part as National's 100-day plan.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell said gangs had recruited more than 3000 members over the past five years - a 51% increase.
There had also been a “significant escalation” in gang-related violence during the same time period, Goldsmith said.
“We need to take action and reduce gangs’ ability to engage in criminal behaviour and prevent them from further endangering and intimidating Kiwis.”
The government would introduce legislation to ban all gang insignia in public places.
Police would be given the power to issue dispersal notices, requiring gang members to immediately leave an area. They would then not be allowed to see each other for seven days.
Courts would be able to issue non-consorting orders, “which will stop specified gang offenders from associating or communicating with one another for up to three years”, Goldsmith said.
“The law will also be changed to give greater weight to gang membership as an aggravating factor at sentencing, enabling courts to impose more severe punishments.”
Currently, for a judge to consider gang membership as an aggravating factor in sentencing, they need to consider the relationship between a criminal’s gang membership and their offending.
The government plans to remove that requirement, meaning their offending need not be gang-related for a harsher sentence to be imposed - simply being a gang member will be considered an aggravating factor.
At a media stand-up yesterday, Mitchell said for too long, New Zealanders had been of the opinion that “we should wave the white flag” and let gang members run riot in society.
The new legislation would send a message that gang intimidation would no longer be tolerated, he said.
The legislation would be introduced to Parliament in the next few days.
When asked if the proposed new law would breach human rights, he said the attorney-general would examine the legislation when it was introduced.
The government wanted to strike an “appropriate balance” between the rights of the public and the rights of gang members, he said.