Senior Sergeant Richard McPhail, of the Gore police, is calling for public vigilance in the wake of recent gang tensions in Invercargill.
There are strong Mongrel Mob connections in the Mataura area and he wants the community to keep open channels of communication between themselves and police.
‘‘We want people to call us if they see any suspicious activity. Particularly, we would like to hear about any groups of senior patched gang members congregating, or spotted moving in groups or by car, especially on main or back roads that lead to Invercargill. This allows us to keep our fingers on the pulse of what is happening and stop further escalation of tensions between the two major factions involved.''
Sgt McPhail said most of the occurrences centred on Invercargill.
‘‘There is a tremendous amount of community support here and, at this stage, we have no major concerns for public safety in the Gore/Mataura area,'' he said.
‘‘Our main concern is avoidance of conflicts and if the public can help by keeping us informed of movements, then it allows us to take the spark out of confrontations before they happen.''
With extra police resources on stand-by in Invercargill, response teams could travel to any flare-ups throughout the region ‘‘at a moment's notice''.
He urged members of the public to limit their involvement in the gang situation to that of communicators.
However, they should not feel any amount of information was too small to report.
‘‘Call in with anything that may have been seen and let us decide whether it is relevant. The police will decide what actions should be taken on any given situation,'' he said.
Story by Grant Bryant
