Safer Communities for Families

United Future will:

• Increase national Police numbers to 10,000. The current number of sworn police is 7,238, or 1 officer for every 561 people, one of the worst police-to-population ratios in the western world ratio. By comparison, Canada has 1:531, the United States 1:438, Australia 1:427, England and Wales 1:393, Scotland 1:323, and France 1:255. The proposed increase to 10000 would reduce our ratio to 1:406, just below that of Australia.
• Re-introduce 'beat' cops for every neighbourhood, to raise the visibility of police and their interaction with the community they serve, as well as boosting intelligence-gathering capabilities.
• Introduce a campaign to report all offences to emphasise that 'No Crime is Too Small', and resource the police to respond rapidly to these incidents and target 'hotspots' of crime.
• Promote co-operation between community groups, such as Neighbourhood Support and Community Patrol groups, and neighbourhood beat police and local councils. Encourage these groups to share information, develop community safety initiatives in line with the 'No Crime Is Too Small Strategy', and to also function as Emergency Readiness teams, providing a street level infrastructure for civil defence assistance.
• Ensure that police target and monitor the persistent criminals in our communities, particularly gangs.
• Review the effectiveness of traffic police, with a view to whether they should comprise a separate division.
• Increase staffing levels at Police Communications Centres to ensure that 111 calls are responded to promptly and effectively, and consider returning them to control at the regional level to utilise local knowledge.
• Establish a dedicated non-emergency phone line to deal with petty crime, operated at the local level.
• Ensure that police co-ordinate closely with social service and child protection agencies in each community, including automatic referral of any criminal activity that involves children, to improve responses to domestic violence and child abuse.
• Establish community safety plans with police, local bodies and communities, building local knowledge and community relationships, and ensure that all households can receive information about local policing issues.
• Establish a transparent Police staffing formula that ensures a minimum presence in all areas, yet allows for extra police to be deployed where the crime rate exceeds the national average.
• Encourage volunteer and community agencies to take a role in promoting a crime free society.
• Cut bureaucracy and administration compliance costs within the police to free up more resources and time for frontline policing.
• Upgrade Police equipment, such as the introduction of an encrypted radio system and stab-proof vests.
• Introduce three-officer squad car operations so that one officer can be offloaded at the station to process offenders who are 'picked' up while an alternative 'partner' would maintain the two person team.
• Make security systems and their monitoring a legitimate tax-deductible expense.
• Establish a hotline for receiving anonymous information about criminal and unlawful activities.
• Increase funding for the Youth Aid section of the police
• Increase the length of Police training and mentoring programmes to ensure that new recruits are fully prepared.

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United Future Contacts: 0800 UFNZHQ
Parliamentary: Bowen House, Lambton Quay, Wellington E-mail: Ph: 04 471 9410