The latest gang statistics the government is using to justify possible changes to firearms legislation make me feel uneasy. When it was put to Police Minister Judith Collins by Felix Marwick of ZB that I suspected the numbers may not be accurate, she replied she’d rather trust the police than a gang associate.
Leaving aside the unnecessary snip seemingly aimed at me, her faith may be misguided. The last time I felt uneasy about gang numbers the government was using, they turned out to be ludicrously wrong. She may want to ask her predecessor Anne Tolley about that.
Tolley claimed that 4,000 gang members were responsible for 34 percent of A and B class drug offences and 25 percent of homicide related offences over a three-month period. It turned out the numbers were actually four percent and zero percent respectively. The incorrect data were used as a basis for the much-touted ‘Gang Intelligence Centre’.
Now they are saying 44 percent of those 4,000 gang members have firearms related charges. Just instinctively this seems off the mark and given their history of wildly inaccurate data, I think we have a right to test if they are correct or not.
So, people in the media and opposition, please ask the Minister to provide the methodology of these firearms figures to test their veracity and to see if they accurately reflect reality.
If I were a betting man, I’d put a wager on them being misleading – but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong; after all it will be nice to regain some confidence in police data.
Leaving aside the unnecessary snip seemingly aimed at me, her faith may be misguided. The last time I felt uneasy about gang numbers the government was using, they turned out to be ludicrously wrong. She may want to ask her predecessor Anne Tolley about that.
Tolley claimed that 4,000 gang members were responsible for 34 percent of A and B class drug offences and 25 percent of homicide related offences over a three-month period. It turned out the numbers were actually four percent and zero percent respectively. The incorrect data were used as a basis for the much-touted ‘Gang Intelligence Centre’.
Now they are saying 44 percent of those 4,000 gang members have firearms related charges. Just instinctively this seems off the mark and given their history of wildly inaccurate data, I think we have a right to test if they are correct or not.
So, people in the media and opposition, please ask the Minister to provide the methodology of these firearms figures to test their veracity and to see if they accurately reflect reality.
If I were a betting man, I’d put a wager on them being misleading – but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong; after all it will be nice to regain some confidence in police data.
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