Concern about heroin

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 4

Concern about heroin

PA Auckland Forty New Zealanders died from drug abuse and one in very 10 drug arrests involved heroin last year, according to the Commissioner of Police (Mr R. J. Walton). He said that heroin and cocaine trends caused the greatest concern for the police, there being 303 heroin-related arrests last vear compared with 24 in 1974. The drug problem, he said, has been steadily building from 26 arrests in 1966 to 3220 last year. “Our No. 1 objective is the 'drug problem and preventing supplies reaching New Zealand.” Mr Walton was speaking at the Auckland Rotary Club. He said the new liaison officer posted in Bangkok last year had paid “excellent dividends” for the police. In Auckland last year 13 of 14 major ' armed robberies had been drugrelated. Some critics, he said,

had suggested outlawing gangs but the police could act only in accordance with existing legislation. •‘lt is no more unlawful to wear a Mongrel Mob patch than to wear a bowling club blazer or a Rotarian badge,” he said. Others had criticised the police shadow patrols which followed gang members throughout the country. "Shadow patrols are not a V.I.P. escort — they provide the vital function of constant surveillance." He said the patrols — consisting of a sergeant and three experienced constables — were a remarkably effective tactic. Shadow patrols prevented large numbers of gangs concentrating in small towns where the police did not have the manpower to deal with any confrontation. During Christmas and New’ Year 112 policemen covered 33,600 km on such patrols, working between 12 and 16 hours a day for up to three weeks at a time.

The police, Mr Walton said, were not affected by any peer group affiliations and must be impartial no matter who was involved. While gang violence tended to involve rival gangs rather than unknown victims, the police would act promptly and efficiently investigate any crime reported. Between December 22 and January 13, the police arrested 146 gang members throughout New Zealand on violence and disorderly 'conduct charges, seizing more than 200 weapons. In Auckland, 210 gang members had been arrested since last November and weapons ranging from knuckle-dusters to firearms had been seized. “There is no question of the police being unable to cope with gang law breaking. “I do not think the police alone can bring gangs under control — it is a matter for the whole community,” he said.