Associate Minister of Police and former Auckland detective Casey Costello said she saw the Southern Resilience to Organised Crime in Communities (ROCC) work programme as providing an alternative path for people on the fringes of organised crime.
The ROCC initiative was active in seven police districts across New Zealand.
Eleven agencies had been selected to receive a share of $1.37million to build local resilience to organised crime.
"We have to come in behind and make sure that there is a clear alternative pathway to our most at-risk families.
"We can fix our youth problems, we can fix addiction problems, but if we fix that problem and they return back to broken families, to no home, to no education pathway then we are just a revolving door," she said.
The programme provided homes, health interventions and hope.
"That’s what ROCC is about," she said.
Organised crime was a business which needed a similar response to prevent it from gaining strong footholds in homes, schools and communities, she said.
"Communities, when they work together, can disrupt, they can give hope and they can force out the part that is damaging your communities.
"It is not a police solution.
"The key to success of the ROCC work programme is letting communities just get on with it, remove the red tape and make sure any door is the right door," Ms Costello said.
Mataura Marae health and social services manager Kiri Limmer said women who lived inside gangs, were frequently subjugated, isolated and had lost all independence.
"The men are the controllers.
"They [the women] are conditioned like that when they go into a relationship."
They were not allowed to work, were kept at home to look after children and run around looking after their men.
"It’s the men’s way or no way or they get the bash. So to prevent getting the bash, they’ll be submissive. Which is really sad."
After a partner goes into prison, the women needed help to break the cycle they were in.
"It’s quite an intimidating environment," Ms Limmer said.
They needed to develop self esteem, emotional and physical healing, regain independence and support while developing the courage to choose a different path which is connected with the wider community, she said.
Southern police district commander Superintendent Jason Guthrie said solutions would not come from one organisation.
While the ROCC initiative was focused on whanau, rangatahi and wahine, there was also an opportunity to expand it further to the men involved in the equation, he said.
"When we’re dealing with males ... we are always opening up conversations around how we might support an exit from gang-related organised crime."
Gang involvement was a complex issue because people joined for a range of reasons, Supt Guthrie said.
"They get a lot of different benefits. So we’re trying to send the message that there are alternatives. I think part of ROCC is actually providing what those alternatives are — local solutions to local problems is really important."
Area commander Inspector Mike Bowman said police also liked to work with gang members to give them the chance to leave.
‘That can be hard in itself. If we’re supporting the whanau, who are left behind and looking for opportunities to get out of the gang environment, it would be an opportunity that the male in the family might consider that as well."
Supt Guthrie said police would remain focused on investigating organised crime.
"But there is something that is very clear to us, we cannot arrest our way out of inter-generational and social harm that organised crime causes.
"It’s not just one action or work group from police that will make the difference here.
"From a policing perspective, it’s about all of our teams working together, prevention, investigations, and our frontline, alongside our agency partners, as well as the community, that will help to turn this around."
In 2023, there was a raid on an organised crime operation. Police worked across multiple properties where 20 arrests were made.
"It was a significant disruption to a particular organised crime group that was operating across our other communities," Insp Bowman said.
But it was a situation which impacted a wider circle, he said.
"They have partners, children, whanau — all left in a position where potentially their main provider is in prison.
"It’s a situation where the household and social issues facing these families and the wider community that they live in could potentially be exacerbated."
It was the first time a raid was undertaken in conjunction with the ROCC, which brought reassurance for whanau and community expected to be impacted by the incident. Wrap-around services were co-ordinated through the multi-agency approach.
- By Toni McDonald
