As the new government settles into office, its top priority will lie in the economic field, but as it gears up for that task a more immediate challenge is to tackle “law-and-order” issues.
The National Party made headlines with its promises to limit ram raids and gangs using guns in Auckland, and it has in Mark Mitchell an experienced MP keen to get to grips with the problems. What is more, he has experience in the field, here and overseas.
While there may be competition for other portfolios from top-ranked MPs among the governing coalition, Mitchell is easily the best qualified to be Minister of Police.
A one-time dog handler for the police, Mitchell has clashed in the past with the methods of the country’s top cop, criticising the “policing by consent” model.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has consistently used the phrase since his appointment in 2020, referring to the need for the public to approve of and co-operate with police — who are entrusted with great powers — so officers can successfully keep the peace on behalf of the community.
Buried in the middle of a press statement announcing the National Party’s law-and-order policies was a bland sentence from Mark Mitchell as police spokesman with far more significance than the promised anti-gang crackdown which made the news headlines:
“In addition to funding a net increase in police officers, National will scrap Labour’s policing- by-consent philosophy, which has been a failure, and encourage a back-to-basics policing model.”
To most eyes, Mitchell’s comments were an attack on the Labour government, which is to be expected from an Opposition MP during the heat of an election campaign. But the reference to “policing by consent” is a thinly veiled criticism of National’s intended target: Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, as the NZ Herald reported.
The phrase is one that Coster has consistently used since his appointment in April 2020, and is a guiding philosophy for democratic police forces around the world dating back nearly 200 years. In 1829, Sir Robert Peel, the British Home Secretary, advocated for the establishment of a police service that would seek to use minimum force to maintain law and order.
Whether Coster will buckle to National’s demand to depart from the policing-by-consent philosophy will be an intriguing aspect of the opening stanza of the new government’s determination to raise administrative standards in key departments.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
A one-time dog handler for the police, Mitchell has clashed in the past with the methods of the country’s top cop, criticising the “policing by consent” model.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has consistently used the phrase since his appointment in 2020, referring to the need for the public to approve of and co-operate with police — who are entrusted with great powers — so officers can successfully keep the peace on behalf of the community.
Buried in the middle of a press statement announcing the National Party’s law-and-order policies was a bland sentence from Mark Mitchell as police spokesman with far more significance than the promised anti-gang crackdown which made the news headlines:
“In addition to funding a net increase in police officers, National will scrap Labour’s policing- by-consent philosophy, which has been a failure, and encourage a back-to-basics policing model.”
To most eyes, Mitchell’s comments were an attack on the Labour government, which is to be expected from an Opposition MP during the heat of an election campaign. But the reference to “policing by consent” is a thinly veiled criticism of National’s intended target: Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, as the NZ Herald reported.
The phrase is one that Coster has consistently used since his appointment in April 2020, and is a guiding philosophy for democratic police forces around the world dating back nearly 200 years. In 1829, Sir Robert Peel, the British Home Secretary, advocated for the establishment of a police service that would seek to use minimum force to maintain law and order.
Whether Coster will buckle to National’s demand to depart from the policing-by-consent philosophy will be an intriguing aspect of the opening stanza of the new government’s determination to raise administrative standards in key departments.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
2 comments:
Western police forces first need to remove the wokeness. In the UK an autistic girl was arrested because she said a police officer looked like her lesbian Nana. But protesters chant highly objectionable comments and death threats in protesters about Gaza, and police do nothing.
In NZ women's rights protesters are assaulted while police watch. Then refuse to provide protection so she can attend the person charged with her assaults sentencing. But trans rights protesters have police escort, police support, with police bending over backwards to not prosecute when they assault people.
Woke bias must go, police need to police with even hands.
OK, a bit on the extreme side, but how about all dairy owners undertake a firearms safety course, then let it be known that a number of these dairies, liquor stores actually have a shotgun under the counter?. If I were a thief, I would think again!-This is called deterrent.
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