NZ Police solving record number of cases on Minister’s watch

As his term draws to a close, the current Minister of Police can look back with pride at his department's success rate in apprehending rogues, scoundrels and scofflaws.

With just a few weeks to go before the election stuffs everything up or makes everyone’s lives better depending on the colour of your rosette, many soon-to-be-former Government Ministers are looking back, some with pride, at their achievements over the last term.

Including, possibly, the Minister of Police. Appointed to the role in November 2023, he wasted no time in meeting with the then Police Commissioner to set out the Government’s expectations on crime reduction. The then Commissioner wasted no time in looking for another job and bailed a few months later.

Undaunted, the Minister made his expectations plain, to anyone who’d listen. Some did listen, and some of those took the expectations on board. Crime needed to be reduced, people needed to be arrested, charged and allowed to apply for permanent name suppression.

And it happened. The Minister set up boot camps to get young offenders back on the straight and narrow and while many absconded moments later to rob banks, set up drug cartels or become personal trainers, they were recaptured in record time and brought back to camp, some several times a week, which had never happened under previous Labour governments.

The new regime was so successful that New Zealand was in danger of running out of criminals, something else that hadn’t happened before. Luckily, a fresh supply was discovered, right on the doorstep as it were, and soon unprecedented numbers of sworn public officials were turning up in court, charged with an array of offences.

Being found in possession of objectionable material (and we’re not talking about the Nicky Hager omnibus collection), using official laptops for something other than buying Lotto tickets online, giving away official equipment like guns, uniforms and the occasional office building, and tipping off the few remaining civilian baddies that they were about to get nicked: crimes were being solved in numbers even President Trump had never seen before.

It’s a success story like no other. We should be grateful. In fact, we will be – legislation on that is being drafted and will be tabled as soon as normal transmission resumes on November 8.