Te Whanganui-a-Tara – A major package of law and order measures increases police numbers, addresses gang violence and extends successful rehabilitation programmes to break the cycle of offending and entering a life of crime.
Budget 2022 on May 19 will confirm the largest police force ever and an additional 1800 police will be achieved by the end of this year – six months ahead of schedule.
Extra funding has been set aside to grow police to match population growth. This will ensure there is at least one police officer for every 480 people.
Budget 2022 will provide $208 million to be invested to deliver the firearms register, improve the firearms licencing system and enable safer firearms use in New Zealand. Other measures include:
• $94.5 million go to the response to organised crime, including through the resilience to organised crime in communities programme, trans-national organised crime strategy and programmes focused on preventing the harm to New Zealand communities caused and exacerbated by drugs, firearms violence and serious criminal offences.
• To roll out the frontline response model across the country, $164.6 million in operating and $20.7 million in capital funding will be invested to improve the safety of frontline police workforce and communities. This will more than double the current tactical training for frontline police, boost intelligence capabilities, as well as improving the safety and capability of tactical dog teams.
• $8 million will go into the capacity of Te Pae Oranga providers and police, to provide additional referrals for rangatahi who have experienced family harm.
• $24.7 million will be invested to enhance the cybercrime capabilities of Police. This will better support victims of serious crime, including whānau bereaved by homicide and sexual violence survivors, $12.3 million will be invested over four years. The additional funding for victim assistance scheme financial grants, will help to ease the burden of victimisation for New Zealanders.
• To help meet the demand for critical court and justice services, $59.5m will be invested over four years. This will help people experience more whānau centred, empowering and inclusive justice processes.
• To make it easier for all New Zealanders to interact with the court system and know what is happening, investment in digitising the paper-based court process will be delivered.
• To accelerate real rehabilitation and keep staff safe, an additional 518 FTE will be added to the Corrections workforce in the next four years. Improving the wellbeing of both officers and individuals in custody is a priority. An extra 120 frontline staff will be added to provide staff with access to better rosters and more weekends, as well as increase access to programmes for prisoners.
• To meet the unique, trauma-informed needs of the women’s prison network, an additional 100 staff will be added. This will include 23 frontline staff to boost health escorts for female prisoners and 70 further frontline staff to allow greater access to programmes, particularly for wāhine on remand.
• The redesign and delivery of a kaupapa Māori health service will receive $16 million and include 33 frontline health professionals. This service will deliver continuity of care for those who transition back into the community through referral pathways back to whanau, hapu and iwi health services.
• A total of 64 extra staff to boost safety settings in prisons. With rising gang numbers in prison frontline staff are increasingly at risk from violence. Staff will also receive additional training.
• A further 24 staff will be added to manage persons of extreme risk, including 10 intel staff to support the justice sector in efforts to monitor gang activity and reduce the impact of trans-national organised crime.
• $24.9 million will be made available to continue the high impact innovation programme, which contributes to justice initiatives such as the Te Ao Marama courts, the victims operating model and the criminal process improvement programme aimed at reducing the backlog of court cases.
