Mobility from police week-end squads

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32665, 22 July 1971, Page 16

Mobility from police week-end squads

A squad of 51 policemen formed on April 24 to cope with an increase of incidents over the week-end in Christchurch had had an effect, the commander of the Christchurch police district (Chief Superintendent G. Tait) said yesterday.

The introduction of the Offences have increased 28

team, whose members work 48 hours in one week, had gradually given the police more mobility to deal with crime, he said.

Twenty-five new men—being recruits from the training school, together with sergeants and senior-sergeants—-due before the end of next

month would supplement general staff and would mean that there would be more patrols out, said Mr Tait. This would take to 390 the number of policemen in the Christchurch district.

per cent this year on statistics for the same period last year. These were mainly burglaries, thefts, and false pretences, said Mr Tait. A watch was being kept to see that the drug problem did not grow, and the drug squad had recently been increased. “If parents suspect that their children are using drugs they should tell the police,” said Mr Tait. More than 1300 persons, more than one-third of them Maoris, have been arrested by Christchurch police this year. Mr Tait expressed concern at the number of crimes attributed to Maoris, who were only a small proportion of the Christchurch population.

The tracing of persons who had had warrants executed on them by the courts to pay fines was one of the biggest problems the police had to deal with, said Mr Tait. At present 166 of these persons were still missing. This year 2140 warrants had been issued against 1374 for the same period last year.