Collins: Sick of council failures to curb violence

  • 03/05/2016
(Simon Wong)
(Simon Wong)

Police Minister Judith Collins says police are not to blame, and she's sick of councils failing to act on alcohol-fuelled street violence.

It follows a Newshub investigation which found Auckland neighbourhoods dominate the list of the most violent hot-spots across the country.

Judith Collins told Paul Henry it's frustrating when councils have been given authority to sort the problem, and they aren't using it effectively.

"Local bodies asked for power to make their own decisions, they got it," she says.

"And yet I have been lobbied by councillors about how they didn't want these things, I've had councillors tell me that the police should not be making submissions," she says.

Auckland Council says it is committed to working with police to address crime and improve public safety, and currently facilitates a quarterly Taskforce on Alcohol and Community Safety.

The council says key initiatives to have come from the taskforce include:

Statistics New Zealand has mapped 2015 police crime data, released to Newshub under the Official Information Act, to show the areas with the highest number of assaults, sexual assaults and robberies in public places.

Newshub.