Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Paul Basham: Police Assistant Commissioner on the increased reports of gang insignia before the ban came into effect

Transcript

Paul Basham: Police Assistant Commissioner on the increased reports of gang insignia before the ban came into effect · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the gang patch ban will we soon become like
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: New York and no longer see them on the streets.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: The force of the ban is now in force. Police
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: have been preparing for the new rules for six months
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and say they are ready to enforce them. It's not
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: just rules around signia changing today though. Police will be
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: able to issue non consulting audios to stop consulting audios, orders,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I should say, to stop them talking to each other
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and associating with each other, etc. Paul Basham is the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Police Assistant Commissioner. He's with me live this morning. Good morning,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Good morning Ryan. Have you had any taken in yet?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Have you got any patches?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: No, not this far. We have noticed an increase in reporting,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: but that increase reporting, that is to say, sighting of
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: gang members out and about in public, occurred before midnight
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: last night, as it were, And so of course the
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: legislation hasn't come live until midnight last night. So as
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I talk to you now on the information that I've
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: got and we are still collating events from overnight. We
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: actually haven't issued a prosecution at this point, although we
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: have had the odd kind of increase in reporting where
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: we've dealt with gang members as we normally would for
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: different things.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And were they wearing their patches when you dealt with them?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, we've definitely noticed in the last twenty four
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: hours or sort of hours preceding midnight, that there were
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: a more overt display of or more presence of gang
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: members wearing gang patches and public or you know, one
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: last ira, sorry.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: One last hurrah before midnight.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Well that might be from their perspective. You know, we're
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: dealing with gang members and their behavior up and down
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the country every day, so we get reporting about criminal
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: behavior all the time. So the reporting that I'm talking
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: to you about this morning is that plus what I
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: would see is sort of just a heightened awareness from
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the public, you know, reporting and other things that of
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: course weren't triggered by the legislation until last.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Night, right I see. And so after midnight, did you
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: has police had any interactions with gang members and if so,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: were they wearing their patches? You don't know?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Well, look, it's truly really we're collating things from overnight.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know we've doubt As I said, you know,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: we deal with gang members and their behavior, things like
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: domestic violence and other stuff, so we would have been
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: doing that out last night, as we normally do. But
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: if they are wearing their patches in their own homes,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: it's not an offense. Yeah, that sort of thing. So
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I think it's what's in front of us today through
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: this weekend, in the next few weeks, which will be
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: telling us.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: You said your people have been phoning in with their
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I've seen them someone with a gang patch.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: What number do people call if I see a person
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: with a gang patch? Do I call one one one
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: or do I call one o five?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It's a really good question. I think the same rule supply,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: you know, common sense supplies that people are frightened or scared,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: you know, intimidated, or they're seeing something in front of them,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: like a like an assault or something that has some
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: sort of violence and threat to life. And it's always
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: you know, one one one, as you normally would in
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: any situation where you were scared or felt threatened.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But if it's a game, remember picking up broccoli at countdown,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: then one oh five.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, onefi is probably better than if it's something that's historical,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: even online. You know, we've got to cope with all
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: sorts of demand, and this is on top of that.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: So it's just how we manage that. But you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: the messages of people are frightened or scared or they're
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: seeing something that's you know, like physical harm, then absolutely
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: one one one.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Is it do you have extra staff? Know how many
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: extra staff whose specific job it is to deal with
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the game patch band? Do you have?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Well we staid with Celestial Game Unit back in
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: July I think it was. That's circa twenty five staff,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: sort of like a support engine here in Wellington, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: then across the country there's in a distalled seventy seven
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: positions that have been established. That's on top of other
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: units like technical crime units and other units that are
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: sort of doing this sort of work. And you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: we're you know, constivary work for a force of circuit
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: teens thousands, and so we don't sort of see it
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: in sort of silos. We kind of would re view
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: its police doing you approach.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: In terms of priority? I mean, if you know you've
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: got murders and robberies and drug deals and whatever committed
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: by gangs, they're going to take priority over prosecutions for
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: wearing a patch, right.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Well, we have to prioritize our demand every day our
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: staff and our sergeant team leaders and do that in
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the course of a shift multiple times depending on what's
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: in front of them. You know, policing situational, it's hard
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: to predict sometimes what the shift will look like. And
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you know, our people are really good at making those
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: sorts of decisions, prioritizing making the odd trade off where
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: they need to. But I would say that, you know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: from a crime science point of view, if you please
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a small cohort that I proportionately like to cause more
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: damage and violence in communities, then you get a disproportional benefit.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: It's the sort of twenty eight year old in crime science,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: and so to the extent that BEING members are often
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: associated with violent and other forms of criminal.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Behavior, it should be using this legislation have a compounding
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: interest effect on it. Yeah, I appreciate what you're saying there, Paul,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time. Paul Bash and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Police Assistant Commissioner just gone seven minutes away from six
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Patches Off today. Please for more
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: From early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: podcast on iHeartRadio.