Headline: Axing car squad shows budget cuts in action
Police Minister Anne Tolley’s refusal to admit that Police budgets will be going backwards over the next four years is the ultimate in political spin, Labour’s Police spokesperson Kris Faafoi says.
“Today we have seen a prime example of the real life impacts of National’s budget cuts with the axing of Wellington’s specialist car squad.
“The squad may have been designed to achieve short-term success, but disbanding it speaks to the wider issue of budget constraints affecting what police are able to achieve.
“By the Minister’s own accounts the real change in funding for Police, taking into account projected inflation, is a cut of $113 million over the next four years.
“That is already putting extraordinary pressure on our police and will be contributing to decisions to close successful programmes like the ‘chop shop squad’.
“The pressure to meet basic policing requirements has resulted in investigative work being sacrificed for the Minister’s budget priorities.
“The specialist car theft squad was progressive, innovative and delivering results for Wellingtonians. Career criminals were being challenged.
“I think New Zealanders want to see our police properly resourced to undertake the kind of preventative, intelligent policing that the squad has delivered.
“The Minister’s continued denial that there are no cuts to police is laughable,” Kris Faafoi said.
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