In his first ever State of the Nation speech Prime Minister Bill English announced a $503 million investment in Police and the wider police sector to reduce crime.
English says the Government has established several successful initiatives and programmes to reduce crime and prevent reoffending in recent years.
He says, "These programmes contributed to a 20 percent reduction in crime between 2009 and 2014. They improved public confidence in Police, and they drove productivity gains that freed up the equivalent of more than 350 extra frontline officers."
The investments comprise a Safer Communities package that have three parts to it:
- Targeting and catching offenders
- Preventing crime and reducing victimisation
- Delivering a more responsive Police service
English says, "We need to push harder to keep every young person on a track that avoids first offending and prevents them moving on to even more serious crime.
But the Police frontline need more time to dedicate additional resources to crime prevention and working with other agencies, while also meeting higher demand for dealing with serious crime now.
Although recorded crime has fallen since 2009, overall demand for Police services has recently increased.
That’s down to the complexity and time-consuming nature of cases such as family violence, child abuse and sexual assault, as reporting of these crimes increases."
English adds that recorded crime has begun to rise over the last two years- particularly burglaries, robberies and assaults.
"This Government is prepared to invest up front in programmes that will tackle these complex issues and make a positive difference to communities."
Safer Communities will provide funding for over 1100 additional Police staff, of whom will be sworn officers. This will then increase the number of sworn officers to nearly 9800 by June 2021, and the number of non-sworn staff to over 3200.
The package includes:
- A new national 24/7 phone number for non-emergencies.
- More staff for up to 20 rural and regional police stations so that 95 percent of the population lives within 25 kilometres of a 24/7 police presence
- More specialist investigators for child protection, sexual assault, family violence and other serious crime
- Additional resources to deal with burglaries, youth offending and other community crimes
- More officers to target organised crime
- Around-the-clock capability for the Police Eagle helicopter
All police districts will also receive extra officers, with Police deciding how many will go where, based on need.
"We are unashamedly targeting offenders to ensure they are off our streets - by providing additional resources for Police to resolve more crime, and target criminal gangs and organised crime.
We’re also providing additional resources to address the underlying drivers of crime – through preventative work by the Police and greater investment in rehabilitation for prisoners.
This large investment is possible only because of New Zealanders’ hard work to build a strong economy, backed by the Government’s plan to create economic opportunities and get our books back in order."
English concludes by asking New Zealanders for the privilege of leading the country for the next three years.
"National will go into the election with a positive and ambitious programme that will back New Zealanders to succeed. Over the coming months, I look forward to setting out the next steps in that plan."