Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, List MP of New Zealand’s ruling National Party and Chairman of the Select Committee on Law and Order, has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to remain tough on criminals and shared the community’s concerns of rising incidences of robberies and burglaries. In an exclusive statement, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, who is currently in his third-term as a List MP, has reiterated various steps initiated recently by his government to improve law and order in the country

Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, List MP of New Zealand’s ruling National Party and Chairman of the Select Committee on Law and Order, has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to remain tough on criminals and shared the community’s concerns of rising incidences of robberies and burglaries. In an exclusive statement, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, who is currently in his third-term as a List MP, has reiterated various steps initiated recently by his government to improve law and order in the country. Since 2008, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has been seen as the visible face of the Indian community, and has been doing his best to ensure that voice of the community is heard. Recent spurt in aggravated robberies had inflicted some fear and resentment in the minds of the local Indian community who own majority of dairies and liquor stores in New Zealand The community has been voicing their concerns through the local New Zealand media and Babushahi.com in India and calling upon the government to take steps to safeguard the small business owners. Contrary to public perception, the police have been doing its job well. Actually, they need to be commended for their initiative of ‘Operation Dukan’ and setting up of a special task force in Auckland area with deployment of a team of 20 investigators, and launching a country-wide awareness campaign, ‘There is nothing good about stolen goods’. Scores of arrests are continuously being made by police and government has initiated several measures, including a grant of $1.8million to improve safety of owner-operated small businesses alone (Read our earlier story: $1.8 million grant to safeguard shop owners in NZ) To resolve and to improve the law and order situation, Bakshi informed of his government’s several measures initiated to ensure offenders remain off the streets and to rehabilitate them to prevent their reoffending. In response to criticism from some quarters, Bakshi confirmed that the government will now be putting more police on the beat. Their numbers would be boosted by 1,125, including 880 extra frontline officers across all police districts, and resources to ensure a 24/7 patrolling police presence for more communities. In order to achieve its objectives, Bakshi added, the government had allocated a fairly large chunk -$785.6 million of this year’s budget to capital funding for law and order. This includes $503.8 million Safer Communities Package that will boost police numbers by 10 per cent and ensure 95 per cent of the population will have a 24/7 police presence within a range of 25kms. Home burglary, which until July 2016 was not a priority for police to attend, is now a “priority offence” and now requires higher attendance of police. According to Bakshi, the government had set challenging targets for police, including seizing more assets from organised crime, reducing deaths from family violence, and reducing reoffending by a particular ethnic group. A funding of $46.9 million has also been provided to prevent burglary, reduce youth reoffending and support at-risk prisoners, informed Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi who is also the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Police Minister. As a large number of burglaries are committed by youth under the age of 25 and are most at risk of committing crime long-term, $32.9 million has been set aside to improve the services of rehabilitation and their reintegration into society. Additional funding of $13.9 million has been made available to professional youth mentoring, cognitive behavioural therapy and functional family therapy to reduce youth offending. For the first time, Bakshi added, government would now be providing security support funding to burglary victims to prevent them being targeted again, such as window locks, security lights, or bolt locks.   Whether these measures would bring the required drop in crime-especially burglaries and aggravated robberies, only time will tell. Immediate benefit may not be visible because some of the funding for example, boosting police numbers, is spread over the next four years. But at least a positive beginning is seen to have been made by the government and is likely to soothe the edgy nerves of the local community who are demanding more.