PDF files of 20th Anniversary Special December 15, 2019

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Anniversary Special | December 15, 2019 | indiannewslink.co.nz
Anniversary
Global cooperation helps to tackle growing challenges
35
Mike Bush
Armed Police patrolling the streets of Christchurch (AFP Photo published by RNZ).
Halting crime across the
borders
Over the past 10
years, New Zealand
Police’s cooperation with overseas
partners has expanded,
and we remain committed
to working closely with our
friends and neighbours across a
number of areas.
A focus for New Zealand
Police is working with strategic
partners at home and overseas
to tackle the challenges affecting
people’s lives here and across
the region.
Partnerships are vital to
Police’s work and the benefits
are many.
The Christchurch massacre
There is no greater illustration
than the response to the
terror attack of March 15, 2019,
in both the help received from
overseas law enforcement partners
and the strong support for
Police among ethnic communities
in New Zealand.
Partnerships underpin
Police’s purpose, which is that
all New Zealanders are safe
and feel safe. Reducing
crime and the harm it
causes, and holding offenders
to account,
are essential to
achieve that goal.
Crime crosses borders
and so must
the Police response.
Transnational
crime takes many
forms – such as the
methamphetamine
trade, people smuggling,
online child exploitation
and money
laundering.
The Pacific, with so
many small nations in
so much ocean, has long
been a target for criminals
– firstly seeking access
to the more affluent countries
of the region, such as
New Zealand and Australia,
but more recently also targeting
vulnerable people in
Island states.
Security challenges
worldwide
We share security challenges
with many other countries
– particularly in the Pacific
region – and we acknowledge
a collective responsibility to
build policing capacity and
capability across the region
to keep our people and borders
safe.
We have a network of liaison
officers based in key strategic
postings places across
the world – Washington DC,
London, Bangkok, Beijing and
Suva, to name a few.
In addition, our people
are engaged in many
projects in the
Pacific, helping
build
capacity
and capability with a particular
focus on community policing
–that is an area where we
have an excellent international
reputation.
Changing trends
Police relies on strong relationships
at home and overseas
to stay ahead of changing
trends in offending.
Around the Pacific, we
work to combat transnational
organised crime, terrorism
and money laundering – and
many other challenges.
Police has recently led or assisted
capability development
training overseas, including
courses in Thailand, Vietnam
and Indonesia.
At home, the New Zealand
Government’s allocation of
extra funding to Police means
more staff will be allocated to
investigate, disrupt and dismantle
serious organised and
transnational crime.
Seizing drugs and bad
money
There have been many recent
success in which Police’s
work with partners at home
and overseas has led to the
seizure of hundreds of kilos
of methamphetamine and
other drugs; millions of dollars
in cash; and the restraint
of assets subject to forfeiture
proceedings as suspected proceeds
of crime.
These all represent a huge
amount of social harm prevented,
as drugs seized fail to
reach their intended targets
and people involved in their
importation or manufacture
are held accountable for their
offending.
Despite the big picture,
broad-brush nature of transnational
offending, the harm
is felt by individuals and their
communities at the ground
zero of organised crime.
People support helps
Those communities are increasingly
joining forces with
Police to support people affected
by crime.
In Northland, for example,
Te Ara Oranga is a methamphetamine
harm reduction
programme involving Police
and other agencies; in the Bay
of Plenty, Oho Ake is a partnership
with Tūhoe iwi that
seeks to steer young offenders
away from crime.
Tūhoe also provided valuable
support in a 2018 operation
targeting Mongrel Mob
methamphetamine dealing
in the Bay of Plenty town of
Kawerau - a model of cooperation
reducing the impact of a
large-scale police operation in
a vulnerable community.
Achieving goals
There are many other examples
throughout New
Zealand of communities stepping
up in partnership with
Police to repair the damage
caused by crime.
Our mission is for New
Zealand to be the safest country
and our operating model
is Prevention First – we take
every opportunity to prevent
harm occurring.
This applies beyond our
borders as well as at home:
we are determined to be
good neighbours and share
our experience and expertise
with the other nations
of the Pacific, and beyond,
for the benefit of all our
communities.
Mike Bush is Police
Commissioner of New
Zealand