'Surgical' approach needed to tackle gangs in Napier amid rising violence - criminologist

March 30, 2021

Jarrod Gilbert says authorities should be focusing on those inside the gangs who are misbehaving.

A targeted, "surgical" approach could be what's needed to nip Napier's rising gang violence in the bud, says top criminologist Jarrod Gilbert. 

It comes amid fresh concerns about how rising gang tensions in Hawke's Bay are being handled. Yesterday a homicide investigation was launched after person's death at a known gang pad in Napier.

Gilbert likend the "surgical" approach to what was actioned in Timaru during the 1990s under then Police Minister John Banks.

Gilbert's plan would see police narrow their focus on the problematic parts of specific gangs.

"What we've got is a surgical issue in a very specific area involving very specific chapters of very specific gangs," Gilbert, a University of Canterbury lecturer told Breakfast.

Typically, Gilbert says gang warfare settles itself and only very rarely crosses over to where civilians are put at risk. But that's exactly what happened after a drive-by shooting at a Napier bar last month. 

Two men in their 20s have been charged over the shootout, the biggest in the recent series of incidents. 

Gilbert says that it's often the younger members of gangs that act out. He says applying more pressure with increased police visibility would help more senior gang members to sort out the internal gang issues. 

Mayor Kirsten Wise and Police Association’s Chris Cahill believe more cops on the streets will help.

"It's those older members of the gang needed to go, 'hang on a second, that's too much heat', and pull their membership back in line".

It'll require more officers in the area in order for the plan to be carried out, a move that's backed by Napier's mayor Kirsten Wise and the head of the Police Association, Chris Cahill.

Yesterday, Wise delivered a letter to Police Minister Poto Williams highlighting that police officers are stretched paper thin throughout Napier. 

The removal of holding cells from Napier, now means cops have to travel into Hastings to put people who've been arrested in custody - taking up time and resources.

It's an issue Cahill says is just adding fuel to the fire.

"Police haven't got the resources to crack down earlier in the night before things start escalating. That behaviour then just turns to violence," Cahill says.

Without the heightened visibility of police out and about, Wise says many in her community are worried about public safety. 

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