District Commander Superintendent Karyn Malthus has welcomed the 102 officers allocated to Auckland City District today by Police Commissioner Mike Bush. 15 positions are already in place, with a further 87 positions still to be recruited for Auckland City District.
The new staff were allocated as part of the 1800 additional Police funded through a $298.8 million increase in Budget 2018 that built on an increase from the previous year.
“I’m really excited about the additional officers that have been allocated to Auckland City District,” says Superintendent Malthus. “This is a significant investment in our communities and will greatly support my officers to prevent crime and keep people safe.”
“We have invested 10 staff already to focus on youth with the establishment of Youth Engagement Officers who will work with partner agencies to help turn youth from a life of crime.”
“Looking forward, I am particularly pleased that we will be able to increase our frontline Public Safety Teams by 30 officers over the next two years, including an increased supervisory capacity.
“In time, we will also be able to increase key Investigation teams by 35 staff. We will be investing additional staffing in our Adult Sexual Assault, Child Protection and Child Sex Offender Management teams,” says Superintendent Malthus.
“This will enable us to improve both our response time and our investigation timeliness, to make sure that people are safe and feel safe in our communities.”
In addition to increasing frontline officers to prevent and respond to crime and calls for service, Auckland City District will establish a new Precision Targeting Team that will focus on priority and prolific offenders to reduce crime such as burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, and youth crime.
The investigative allocation also includes the introduction of an Organised Crime Taskforce in order to combat and prevent gang-related crime such as methamphetamine supply, violence and intimidation, and other serious offending.
“An increase in our ethnic, youth and community policing teams will also occur in time,” she says.
“Auckland City District will also continue to work closely with our colleagues in Counties Manukau and Waitemata Districts, to ensure that we are coordinating our efforts to prevent victimisation, target and catch offenders and keep communities safe right across Tamaki Makaurau.”
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre