Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Casey Costello: Associate Police Minister on the near-record number of new police officers entering the force

Transcript

Casey Costello: Associate Police Minister on the near-record number of new police officers entering the force · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Record numbers of new cops about to hit the street.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Between 720 and 730 recruits are graduating from Porirua's police
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: college this year. That is almost 50% more than the average.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: But can we keep them in the country? Casey Costello,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Associate Police Minister with me this morning. Minister, good morning.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan. How are you?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. First of all, with your
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: hat on as a member for New Zealand First, what
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: did you make of that visit from Te Pāti Māori
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and the Greens to the mob pad?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: It was beyond despicable. They have done more damage for
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: our fight against organised crime than I think they even realise.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: These are trying to legitimise themselves and they've just played
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: into their hand and told young people, oh, look at
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  Speaker 2: these cool guys, just pathetic.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Is there any way that you can see that politicians
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: might need to go and meet with these people to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: try and, I don't know, figure out how to turn
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: them around? Or is that just woolly, waffly nonsense?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Willy-waffly nonsense. If they want to be treated legitimate, take
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: their damn patches off and meet as individuals. Don't try
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: and come as a collective entity as if you're representing
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: some legitimate business. And I wouldn't allow them into my office.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't meet with them full stop. Take your patches
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: off and be treated as individuals.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: How have you been getting the numbers into police recruitment
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: college going up? Are we lowering the standards here? What's
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: going on?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely. And this is what's been so great. And
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I have to, you know, the Deputy Commissioner, Jill Rogers,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: has been a stalwart in this space. Really changed the
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: way we advertise. You saw very early on, we redid
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother sort of advert.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: It's about telling really positive stories about what policing career is.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: You know, we increased to a 20-week course. The Commissioner
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: was very strong about reinstating standards that had been, there
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: was been a lot more discretion applied than previously. should apply,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: so absolutely lifted the standards. But it's a career that
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: people are wanting to join, and I think the fact
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: that they're out there enforcing crime, maintaining law and order
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  Speaker 2: has been a real positive thing. Our attrition rate is
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: currently at 4.6%, which is a historical low.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: How bad is it that we've got more gangsters on
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the streets than cops, though?
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I think this is really unhelpful. You know, we want
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to know who our gang members are and we've worked
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: really hard to ensure we know who they are. If
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: you know it, you can control it. If you can
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: see it, you can control it. So actually knowing who
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: they are is fantastic.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: It's a good thing, but it'd be nice if there
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: were less of them.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Well, this is the part that, you know, all of
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the work that I'm doing in organised crime space is actually,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: you know, targeting these criminal networks. And when you've got
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: politicians show up and have photo ops with them and
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: legitimise them, it's pretty unhelpful. But, yeah, we need to
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: control this network, and that's why I've said about organised crime,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: we want to make a bigger dent, we take their money,
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  Speaker 2: and that's the biggest pathway that I think needs to
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: be prioritised.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Casey Costello, Associate Police Minister.