The number of gang members in New Zealand has risen by 61 per cent after five years of this soft-on-crime Labour Government, National’s Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell says.

“Since Labour came to power in 2017, the number of gang members has grown from 5,343 to 8,607.

“This significant increase in numbers clearly indicates Labour is failing to keep gangs under control. Communities across New Zealand are seeing gangs become more emboldened as a result of their membership growing.

“In the first two months of this year, 164 people were added to the National Gang List. That’s nearly three new gang members every single day. If this trend continues, there will be one gang member for every police officer in New Zealand.

“Instead of cracking down on gangs that peddle misery in our communities, Labour continues to shift the blame and do nothing. The only action Labour has taken in law and order has been to reduce the prison population by over 20 per cent and to repeal the three strikes legislation.

“As a result, criminals feel emboldened to go out and commit crime because they know they will not be held accountable for their actions under this Government.

“That is why, under Labour, we have seen a 33 per cent increase in violent crime, a 140 per cent increase in serious assaults resulting in injury, and in 2022 there was a ram raid every 10 hours.”

Unlike Labour, National is backing our frontline police officers and would give them four new tools to make their jobs easier. National would:

• Ban gang patches, which have been the recent fuel for the worst gun violence seen in New Zealand.
• Give police non-association powers to prevent gang members from communicating and planning criminal activity.
• Allow police to issue dispersal notices where gang members come together in public to intimidate, threaten, and sometimes assault members of the public.
• Give police the warrantless search powers they need to take the guns out of the hands of violent armed gang members.