Police need to be more forceful in dealing with gangs to stop increasing violence in the region, National's justice spokesman Simon Bridges says. 

Speaking at a National Party-organised community meeting at the East Pier Hotel in Napier last night, Bridges said serious crime involving guns and methamphetamine needed a strong approach from police because that deterred that criminal and other criminals from doing it. 

"We expect that whenever there are dangerous things happening, whether it's a shopkeeper, a bar owner, or someone on the street, police will attend and they will be there and that's not happening at the moment at the level it should be in NZ and more specifically here in Napier and Hastings," Bridges said.

He said the solution couldn't simply be to "lock them up and throw away the key" as there were complex social issues that played a part. 

"But what is also true is when I hear the government and the head of the police say, as they do all the time, that they can't arrest their way out of it, I sit there and say but you could arrest some. You could actually do some and when it's serious crime involving guns and methamphetamine or the like, actually society expects, rightly so in my view, that there is a strong approach because that deters that criminal and it deters others from doing the same thing and we've seen that."  

Bridges said he received more correspondence from residents in Hawke's Bay who are fed up and frightened with the ongoing gang violence and increased firearm usage that plagues the region, than from anywhere else in the country.

"The people of Napier should expect to be safe, wherever they go and wherever they walk around Napier and right now what I'm hearing is they're not. One more millimetre and it could have been a homicide a month ago." 

The meeting, held in the wake of the latest shooting in Napier, was attended by about 100 people including both Mongrel Mob and Black Power gang members and affiliates, Napier City Councillors, and National's Taupo MP and caretaker MPcaretaker MP for Hawke's Bay Louise Upston.

The shooting outside the Thirsty Whale nightclub in West Quay at about 12.30am on February 28 saw a man standing outside the bar sustain an injury to his hand and a bar staff member sustain an injury to their groin. A police search of CCTV footage found a third person was shot multiple times by bullets. 

Two people have since been charged in relation to the incident.

Upston said the violent behaviour, and in particular the escalation of violence and use of firearms, "can't continue". Since stepping into her new role in the region, Upston says she has found it to be the biggest area of concern.

She said it was "really encouraging" to see representatives of both the major gangs at the meeting. "This is not about the individuals, it is about the activity and the activity that the wider community find distasteful and unacceptable." 

“The Hawkes Bay wants more police officers, a more visible police presence in public spaces and a quicker, stronger response when community members alert Police to an incident."

Cherie Kurarangi, of Wāhine Toa Mongrel Mob women's chapter, said it is up to those who come from within these gang families to be able to come up with solutions that work for all of the community when they come together in fear and have concerns about intimidation. 

"We are the experts on our own conditions. Help us with resourcing so that we may help the rest of our people." 

Another member of Wāhine Toa said, "not all gang members are failures of the system". "A lot of people judge me because I wear this [patch] but this here represents a whole lot of wahine who have qualifications." 

In her, at times emotional address, she said meth addiction played a large part in recent tensions and the challenge was helping get people off it.  "Not all members agree with the younger members and what they're doing. That's not us."  

"We don't agree with all the violence and the drugs. That's our jobs as mums, as sisters, as grandparents and it's an ongoing struggle within ourselves. Anyone that can fix us is ourselves. Any policies that are contrary to our wellbeing, what's going to happen - there's going to be more recruitment of younger members." 

Napier City Councillor, and former police officer, Keith Price said while it was good to hear what the gang members were trying to do, it was separate from what they needed to do.

He acknowledged that it wasn't necessarily about policing the gang member, but policing the people who are breaking the law.

"What we need is we need police numbers that can make you feel happy walking on the street. The solutions are going to take years to fix. Getting police here is getting onto it, getting them recruited and hard nose policing." 

Price, who had a 28-year career as a police officer up until the 90s, said a shooting during his time would have seen police go "hard" with police squads doing search warrants "all day, all night". "You didn't go home until you got on top of the situation so it needs hard policing". 

He questioned what the message was when they built a police station with no cells in it. 

During the almost two-hour meeting, a common thread put forward by those in the crowd included stronger policing in Napier and an in-depth look at emergency housing and the role having members from different gangs in the same accommodation played in inciting violence.

Upston says she looks forward to continuing the conversation with the community and giving them a voice in Parliament.

“I will be writing to the Minister of Police urging her to take urgent action to keep the community in Napier safe."

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