PM attends Association's 75th Annual Conference - New Zealand ...

PoliceNewsThe Voice of PoliceLabour leader inhot pursuit ofstrengtheningfailing to stop lawsLabour leader Phil Goff utilised his addressat this year’s conference as a vehicle forchange on failing to stop laws.He referred to the 2,500 vehicle pursuitspolice officers had engaged in this year andhow the growing problem placed officers ina “catch-22 situation”.“If you commence a chase and someonegets killed, you get the backlash, but ifyou don’t chase, then you get criticised forletting a dangerous individual get away, whomay then go on to kill someone by drunkenand reckless driving.“When someone is recklessly putting thelives of police officers and other innocentpeople at risk, let alone their own lives,we can’t afford to wait for two to threeoffences or for someone to die before we getserious,” Mr Goff said.Strong commitmentMr Goff said Labour was “committed” totightening the laws on failure to stop and indoing so were considering three options:• Toughening up existing provisions in thelaw, such as mandatory licence suspensionand impoundment of a vehicle on afirst offender;• Taking the Police Association’s recommendationto have failure to stop becomea qualifying offence under sections 128and 129 of the Sentencing Act 2002,which means the offender’s vehicle wouldbe at risk of confiscation; or• Adopting the stance of the New SouthWales Government, which is about topass a law that introduces new offenceswith serious terms of imprisonment forfailing to stop.• Leader of the Opposition Phil Goff addresses conference and lends his support to policeofficers on the issue of offender-initiated chases.Mr Goff said any changes made to the lawneeded to focus on “acting strongly” againstfirst time offenders not just repeat offenders.“The innocent person killed or maimed as aresult of the action of these drivers doesn’tget a second chance. Drivers, who fail tostop, and thus initiate a police pursuit, don’tdeserve a second chance either,” he said.Arming debateMr Goff said any decision on the generalarming of police officers would need to bean “evidence-based approach”.“Labour will support proposals that makepolice and the community safer, but I haveto say that I and many other New Zealandersdon’t want to see officers routinely wearingpistols in holsters on the street.“We will study the detail of this idea when itcomes through; because there are questionswe need to find out more about,” he said.Fronting upAnother issue Labour was committed toaddressing was ‘theft’ of the frontline.“Too much time is taken up on paper workand other compliance requirements whichtake officers away from frontline duties,” hesaid before signalling that Labour is activelystudying other jurisdictions in search ofanswers to the problem.“Some jurisdictions overseas haveintroduced new electronic processingequipment and we are interested indiscussing these ideas as well as others withPolice,” he added.Organised crimeMr Goff said studying laws (from across theTasman), which fought against organisedcrime, was something Labour was lookingat closely.“A huge amount of the crime in ourcommunity ultimately routes back toorganised crime - including drugs, moneylaundering and violence. The tough antiganglaws in South Australia are an exampleof the sorts of tools that can truly makea difference,” Mr Goff told conferencedelegates.Mr Goff said Labour had already committedto a Commission of Inquiry which would lookat the extent of organised crime. “We arededicated to keeping New Zealanders safe,”he said.• Field Officers Dave Steel, Dave McKirdy,Jeff (JJ) Taylor and Graeme McKay take inproceedings.312December 2010