Crime And Punishment

Speech to ACT Wellington Regional Conference; The Museum Hotel, Cable Street, Wellington; Sunday, July 6 2008.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Law and order is a popular choice for politicians wanting to peck at the carcass of the latest social mayhem - making it difficult for our message heard without being grouped in with the 'silver bullet, throw away the key' populists and vigilante group advocates.
Just reflect, for a moment, on the knee-jerk lawmaking of the last few years that has been touted as making society safer. Security screening at airports, anti-smacking, dog micro-chipping, boy racer regulations and banning the sale of spray paint to under-18s are just a few examples. The common themes linking all these is replication or minor variation of existing laws, and increased constraints on law-abiding citizens - all the while doing little to limit the illegal activity it was supposed to address. Crime statistics, particularly those relating to violent offences, continue to grow at a horrifying rate.
It's because of the reverse focus effect that I have chosen to address this topic, not as Law and Order but, as Dostoyevsky described it: Crime and Punishment.
If 'Jake the Muss' of 'Once Were Warriors' were engaged in the fight to defeat New Zealand criminals, he might well say "too much activity, not enough thought bro".
ACT has a comprehensive understanding of the issues and their potential solutions.
First, I have a message for Michael Laws and other community leaders who want to call in the army or employ similar draconian measures to deal with crime: take a break. I understand your sentiments but, for obvious constitutional reasons, the army is not going to be deployed against the gangs. Western societies learned long ago that it is counter-productive to use the armed forces to threaten citizens; gang member or not.
The armed forces, however, do hold much of the knowledge required to deal with the gangs - and I will allude to that throughout this speech. They know, for instance, that battles are won by out-manoeuvring the enemy through: superior reconnaissance; a clear appreciation of the situation; shaping operations; the creation of a dilemma in the enemy's mind; and decisive action - targeting logistics, command and control - before finally 'mopping up' the operational units.
While the trend in crime statistics is worrying to most New Zealanders, I see daily reminders in the media of the poor grasp of the difference between correlation and causation. As a political group that is not given to populist policy-making, the correct start point for ACT is an accurate assessment of the situation: are the statistics directly reflective of social ills? Who is committing which offences, and for what purpose? Is it that the laws dealing with crime are inadequate? Is it an enforcement deficit that is causing these outcomes? What are the actual risks of changing nothing?
I believe that societal factors - including entrenched welfare dependency, urbanisation, single-parent families, increasing ethno-diversity, political correctness and the impact of entertainment sector fantasies - all play a part in our crime statistics. While we can - and must - address these, we simply cannot wait one or two generations for things to come right. We have a duty to protect Kiwis now.
Another question to be asked is: who is committing crimes? I believe that there are basically three types of offender.
First there are the minors who, with the typical spirit of youth, get up to mischief. A proportion of these are being used by hardened criminals, who know the law will be unable to deal with them due to their age or status as first-time offenders.
Secondly, there are the random acts - usually committed by adults who spontaneously do something dumb out of passion, impulsiveness or intoxication.
Finally, there are the organised crime gangs and the serial offenders - the group I want to concentrate on in this speech.
Through nature, nurture, commercial or ideological reasons these people choose to live outside society's norms. Police tell me informally that there are around 10,000 of these people in New Zealand, half of whom are in prison at any one time - with the other half out committing crime. They say these people are almost all recidivists with no intention of reforming, for whom the prison system is a revolving door. Furthermore, the Department of Corrections appears incapable of preventing them from continuing their criminal activities from within prison - and the Probation Service appears to struggle with effectively monitoring parolees.
The leaders of organised crime groups are not stupid. The brightest and most powerful keep themselves as far away from the actual scene of a crime and the culprits as they can and rarely, if ever, get caught.
Most media coverage of gang crime operates on the 'if it bleeds, it leads' principle. But violence is a mechanism for making money, and to stop it we must understand the criminals' intent.
Gangs no longer deal just in two-bit crimes - illegal activity has become very sophisticated. Black market sales of tobacco grown in the Tasman region, for instance, are already a significant concern. As Government tariff increases on alcohol and tobacco bite harder, it is likely that the criminal attractiveness of these items will rise. Petrol and food, including livestock - eg shellfish poaching - can also be added to this list. As in other countries, attacks on trucking firms and depots - rather than armoured cars and banks - will increase.
Gambling, fast money loans, 're-birthing' of stolen vehicles ('chop shops') and 'taxing' (ie stand-over, protection rackets), are all sources of income to gangs. A recent appearance is SMS - better known as text messaging - death threats, where the 'hitman' asks for money in order to cancel the 'contract' that someone has taken out against the target.
Advanced fee, false invoicing and various forms of internet-based fraud are also organised crime 'products'. So, too, are money laundering and identity theft. Theft of intellectual property and the sale of counterfeit items are also rapidly growing, high profit and low risk areas for criminals. Interpol believes the worldwide annual value of counterfeit item sales is $US512 billion and accounts for five-seven percent of total world trade ranging from movies, music, clothing and jewellery to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, car and aircraft parts.
This summary is far from comprehensive, and paints a very dark picture of what we are facing. The reality is that we already have almost all the legislation - but probably not the right punishments - in place to deal with these crimes. It is simplistic to argue for anti-gang legislation - the unintended consequence of that for all Kiwis would potentially be serious curtailment of civil liberties, while the effect on criminals would be as insignificant as micro-chipping of dogs was in trying to clamp down on dangerous animals.
Current enforcement is reactive to public pressure, and fundamentally ineffective in that it pits the police against the front line of the gangs in an infantry on infantry situation. If anything, the police are the weaker unit - being constrained by rules and regulations that the gangs don't follow. The NZ Police website states that there are 3,500 beat and patrol officers - less than half the total number of sworn staff. When 24/7/365 operations are factored in, there is only about 1,000 General Duties Police on duty in the entire country at any one time.
As Sun Tzu wrote: "where the enemy is strong, be weak. Where the enemy is weak, be strong."
This has been a guiding principle of many successful revolutionary and guerrilla leaders, and we would be wise to acknowledge its application to today's crime scene. To regain the initiative, we need to fully understand how these criminals think.
There is a vast array of human and technological methods that can be employed to better understand and target criminals. But there are legislative constraints on their use and some techniques that are employed instead are, quite frankly, useless to a final solution.
One example of this is attempting to infiltrate gangs. While police persist in deploying undercover officers whose graduation pictures are hanging in the foyer of the Police College at Porirua, UC officers will never get close to gang bosses. They are being placed in extreme danger, and are often forced to commit crimes in order to 'prove themselves'. Human re-con through UC operations is effective only at the very lowest seller/buyer/user level of the criminal chain. 'Narcs' - criminals who act as police informers - are very unreliable witnesses.
Al Capone operated a massive racketeering operation for which he was never convicted. Neither was he indicted for the 'St Valentine's Day Massacre'. Yet he was arrested and jailed for tax evasion based on the proceeds of his crimes - if you want to find a crime boss follow the money, not the mayhem. The UC officers that we need to infiltrate the top levels of crime do not look and act like Charles Bronson; they will look like any other accountant or IT specialist.
Just look on the internet at the publicly available version of 'Google Earth' to see how much can be seen via satellite. It is easy - if we have the right relationship with our traditional allies and they provide us with intelligence - to observe the movement of cars and individuals without the need for kicking in doors or planting bugs and GPS locators (although, clearly, the latter technologies have their role).
Power consumption analysis can show potential hydroponic growing operations, and crowd motion studies via satellite or covert filming can identify 'tinnie houses' or other sites of interest. Infra-red and related technologies can reveal certain types of illegal activity - but it is naïve to expect that staking out these sites will turn up a high-level gang boss, who will never be seen in those places.
To win this battle, we have to create a situation where gang bosses cannot carry out their intended plans. This forces them to make new choices, based on limited information and short timeframes.
Completely blocking communications in and out of prison for an extended period of time would cause them some difficulty in terms of running illicit operations from "inside". So, too, would the dis-establishment of gang wings in jails and the separation of prisoners convicted of similar crimes - a practice that has proven very effective in the Netherlands. Private prisons and a rotating nationwide 'swing shift' of prison officers would virtually isolate gang members currently in jail from the activities of those outside. These things have to happen before longer sentences will be totally effective.
Strangling the gang recruitment chain must also be done, but takes time to have an effect. At present, prisons are a fertile recruitment ground - young prisoners join gangs in return for protection in prison. And destroying the gangs 'market' would force a shift in focus, such as the effect of Prostitution Law Reform.
By far, the gang's most important logistic element is cash. While there are many economic and emotive arguments regarding a complete change to New Zealand's currency, it would force all ill-gotten cash into the open. This would set a useful platform for the examination of income and assets. Likewise, sudden legislative changes to strengthen the State's ability to 'lift the corporate veil' and enforce asset seizure (Proceeds of Crime) would force unplanned shifting of assets and provide visibility of crime proceeds that had been moved into legitimate businesses.
This type of approach is designed to change the current environment. There are a number of ways to alter the current balance. Here are a few political initiatives:
* Disruption to the gang's 'customer market'. Prostitution reform helped this. State run gambling helps this. Banning marijuana and party pills does not help, but provides them with customers.
* Three strikes and the max. This puts an end to the current ridiculous situation where, for instance, a burglar can be apprehended for dozens of offences before they are likely to go to jail.
* Cumulative, rather than concurrent, sentences. If a repeat offender commits a burglary, finds a person at home, bashes them, holds them hostage and then steals their car and credit cards to make their getaway the punishment for each offence is added together. Twenty-five years in jail looks a lot different to seven years.
* Truth in Sentencing: delay parole for repeat offenders until after their full custodial sentence is complete.
* Greater emphasis on community policing. The Summary Proceedings Act (1955) could be used to warrant Special Constables, effectively creating a Police Reserve that would provide the protection of the State to those already assisting society - such as Maori Wardens, community patrol groups, neighbourhood watch convenors and so on.
* Creation of an Organised Crime Tactical Operations Unit (OCTOU), comprising a permanently assigned joint force of judges (special category like the Italian anti-mafia judges), Police Special Tactics Group, IRD, GSCB, SIS, EAB, Customs, Corrections, Companies Office, etc.
* Remove delays in the Court system by operating through nights and weekends with increased use of JPs / Community Magistrates.
* Removal of bail provisions for certain types of offences and repeat offenders.
* Re-instate private prisons initially for the two most challenging areas: remand and maximum security.
* The State to apply for Protection Orders against serious offenders to keep them away from their partners and children and limit their role in the perpetuation of criminal families. Children do not have to be wards of the State, but the offender would not be able to approach them without risking recall to jail. This would also make it very undesirable to belong to a criminal family.
* Re-establishment of relationships with traditional allies and intelligence flows.
This is a comprehensive overview of what could be done to tackle the gang problem. It is based on a multi-disciplinary, whole-of-Government approach to the issues. Obviously, I'd like to see all of these initiatives put in place, and we should not forget ACT's longstanding influence on the policies of other Parties in Parliament.
In adopting this approach it is important to note that ACT remains un-moved on our basic zero-tolerance, truth in sentencing, and three strikes and the max positions regarding offending of all natures and seriousness.
In conjunction with these Crime and Punishment policies we must not forget that the real answer for a safer New Zealand lies with reforming welfare and providing effective, quality education for our children. These are points seven, 10 and 20 on ACT's 20-Point Plan. You'll be hearing from us soon about these.