Home > About us > Publications and statistics > Cabinet Paper: Whole-of-Government Action Plan to Reduce the Harms caused by New Zealand Adult Gangs and Transnational Crime Groups

Back to Publications and statistics

Cabinet Paper: Whole-of-Government Action Plan to Reduce the Harms caused by New Zealand Adult Gangs and Transnational Crime Groups

Cabinet Paper: Whole-of-Government Action Plan to Reduce the Harms caused by New Zealand Adult Gangs and Transnational Crime Groups

Date Published: 
October 2014

The Whole-of-Government Action Plan to Reduce the Harms caused by New Zealand Adult Gangs and Transnational Crime Groups is a collaborative approach to deal with the harms caused by these groups. It was developed through bringing Government agencies together to gather, share and analyse information on New Zealand adult gang members and prospects (individuals aged 17 years or older).

In June 2014, Cabinet agreed to four actions to reduce the harms caused by New Zealand Adult Gangs and Transnational Crime Groups. Details of the actions are available at Cabinet Paper: Whole-of-Government Action Plan to Reduce the Harms caused by New Zealand Adult Gangs and Transnational Crime Groups (PDF, 190 KB). Also check out the Minister of Police announcement about the action plan. 

In July 2014, there were 3,969 identified patched gang members and prospects belonging to 32 New Zealand adult gangs: 3,411 were identified as patched gang members and 558 as prospects.

Clarification on figures in the Cabinet Paper

To illustrate the wider influence of New Zealand adult gangs in homicide charges an analysis was undertaken of gang involvement in all 2013 homicides. This analysis also included gang involvement in serious violence and Class A and B illicit drug offence charges for the first quarter of 2014. The identified serious violence and Class A and B illicit drug offences are punishable by a period of imprisonment of 10 years or more.

Police did not make it clear enough in information supplied that charges were laid against both gang members and individuals connected to a gang member in the ways described below.

The analysis identified New Zealand adult gang members and prospects, and the individuals who:

  • were charged together with a New Zealand adult gang member/s for the same identified offence.
  • had an identified familial tie with a New Zealand adult gang member/s.
  • had an identified connection to a New Zealand adult gang member/s.

This analysis identified that New Zealand adult gang members and prospects and the individuals connected to these gang members as identified above were responsible for 25 percent of homicide code class charges laid in 2013. There were 154 homicide code class charges laid in 2013, 39 of these charges were laid against New Zealand adult gang members, prospects and individuals connected to these gang members as described above.

For the first quarter of 2014 New Zealand adult gang members and prospects and the individuals connected to these gang members as described above had been charged with:

  • 34 percent of class A/B drug offences, principally methamphetamine (649 charges in total were laid in this quarter, of which 218 charges were laid against New Zealand adult gang members, prospects and connected individuals as listed above)
  • 36 percent of kidnapping and abduction offences (44 charges in total were laid in this quarter, of which 16 charges were laid against New Zealand adult gang members, prospects and connected individuals as listed above)
  • 25 percent of aggravated robbery / robbery offences (284 charges were laid in total in this quarter, of which 72 charges were laid against New Zealand adult gang members, prospects and connected individuals as listed above)
  • 26 percent of grievous assault offences. (506 charges in total were laid in this quarter, of which 130 charges were laid against New Zealand adult gang members, prospects and connected individuals as listed above).

Note: Class A/B drug charges were only analysed/counted for those individuals who had accumulated 5 or more representative Class A/B drug charges.

The development phases of the Whole of Government Action plan has illustrated the significant harm caused by gangs and their criminal offending which the Action plan is designed to reduce.

Correction

  • The first bullet point under Social Sector should read “61% of New Zealand adult gang member customers are registered for child support liability as a Non-Custodial Parent. This compares to 6% of the general population”.