Govt funding of gangs frustrates police

Press, 3 February 1987, Page 2

Govt funding of gangs frustrates police

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Police dislike of Government funding of gangs is revealed in a letter from the police district commander at Timaru, Mr G. R. Knight, to Police National Headquarters last October.

There was a general feeling in the police of frustration at the knowledge that gangs were being supported financially, enabling them to strengthen and grow numerically, through funding controlled by other Government departments, he said. The fact that the investigating team which had compiled a report on the funding of gangs had been drawn from the four Christchurch districts had made it certain that the background information the report was based on had been very widely discussed in the police. The view of the departmental agencies which were involved with Government policy on job creation was that the money should be targetted at disadvantaged groups, Mr Knight said.

It had to be concerned that some gang personnel fitted that description. However, in general, the purpose of the majority of gangs was to enable their members to indulge in behaviour that was unacceptable to society and which, through their gang membership, often went unchecked, he said. Well-meaning people were expressing the view, without any evidence, that the financial support of gangs through work schemes was helping to reduce crime. That could

not be argued on the basis of the facts. The four district commanders at Christchurch had agreed that the philosophy of “accepting or condoning the existence of gangs runs contrary to the interests of society,” Mr Knight said. However, this was the philosophy of other Government departments and was the rationale behind funding gangs through work schemes. He said the needs of maintaining law and order were such that gangs should not be accepted. Nothing should be done which fostered their continuing existence. While taking this view, the four district commanders had accepted the principle of a fair return for honest endeavour by individuals or even groups of people joined together in co-operatives. "However, we are strongly opposed to employing gangs as groups on their own, under whatever name they may appear," Mr Knight said.

New Zealand Police submissions to the Committee on Violence had emphasised the immense harm gangs did to society.

“We should make it very clear that the police do not support policies that accept or condone the existence of criminal gangs,” he said. Mr Knight said the main areas of further inquiries into criminal offending were on any misappropriation of Government funds paid out under work schemes, and the obtaining by individuals of benefits while simultaneously receiving benefits as part of work schemes.