Meticulous planning and consistent execution by Police resulted in an almost seamless enforcement of the gang patch legislation when it came into effect in November last year.

Police Operation Nickel focused first on education and engagement with gangs. Intense pre-planning involved 500 meetings over two months with gang chapters, iwi groups and other interested parties. The fruits of that focused mahi limited confrontations and charges to 203, and the seizure of 135 items with gang insignia.

This groundwork clearly paid off and was a “whole of Police effort”, Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham, says.

“[It] allowed us to educate, encourage, and really be clear about what the intent of the operation would be when the legislation dropped.”

Sociologist and gang expert Dr Jarrod Gilbert, agrees that engagement before the law came into effect left gang leadership in no doubt what Police wanted and what approach would be taken to non-compliance.

“This laid an important foundation… it was firm and thorough, sending the very clear message that, ‘Hey, this is it, and this is the way it's going to be’. And consequently, because of that, it's worked incredibly well,” Jarrod says. 

“I think that we've avoided greater confrontations because of Police’s strategy and the way they fulfilled that, I really do. Police ought to be congratulated for that.”

While there was a bit of “chest beating” by gang members in the media in the leadup to enforcement kicking in, Jarrod does not believe the compliance shown can be dismissed as a “honeymoon period”. There is a sense of resignation that the law is here and is likely to be here for the foreseeable future.

Paul agrees: “I think those high levels of compliance are well established now.”

Consistently firm but fair

Despite all the initial groundwork, Police didn’t know what to expect when midnight struck on November 21.

Intelligence summaries all predicted mixed compliance, Paul says, but as the days ticked into weeks, there was a feeling of success – and relief.

“Our intention [was] to be firm but fair in the way that we policed [the new laws]. That's what we've seen our staff do… and it has worked well.”

The districts with the most seizures and charges came as no surprise – Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Eastern – but fears of hotspots firing up didn’t eventuate due to the advance planning by Police.

Police Association Region 4 (Eastern and Central) director Detective Senior Sergeant Sally Patrick says having extra staff when 1000 Mongrel Mob members attended the tangi of Angus Benson in Napier (Operation Poster) before Christmas was crucial and served as a needed morale boost.

“It was really good for staff who have previously had to stand by and watch gangs take over the town and the roads when we did not have legislation or staffing numbers to deal with their poor antisocial behaviour… to feel like we are getting the control back.”

The change is also being felt by the public, Sally says, and the absence of gang patches in the district is welcome. Gangs have and always will be a big part of Eastern District, but the legislation is a positive step and she hopes it will eventually result in gang life becoming less attractive to young people.

Jarrod says while enforcing the ban so far “has been about as seamless as you could have hoped for”, it is still a matter of watch and wait. It is important to prepare for the unintended difficulties that may arise, he warns.

“We've now got a cohort that is highly engaged in organised crime who are now much less visible. Updating the gang database for intel purposes is going to become much, much harder.”

Legal challenges are also likely when some of these cases start to come through the courts and a resurgence in gang facial tattoos is also likely, he says, a trend that first appeared in prisons when gang insignia was banned decades ago.

As for crime? “I think you would have to be an extreme optimist to suggest that by removing insignia, we're going to see a reduction in crime. But the thing that concerns me the most, ironically, is the thing that we don’t see coming… Is there something that's going to spring out that we didn't foresee? I guess only time will tell.”

While Paul accepts there is a potential for unintended consequences, he is confident Police will meet them head on. “I don't see it as being an insurmountable challenge in any material way.”

Doing their homework

While gang members saw much of the preparation for Operation Nickel in person, there was even more work being done behind the scenes.

Due to the legislation moving through very quickly, says Paul, a project team was assembled to create an IT platform and online training. “This magnificent ‘engine room’ worked to get us in good shape within a very short time before the legislation dropped,” he says.

Within two months, close to 95% of the staff who needed to had completed the online training – a first within Police. Paul says it shows how engaged staff were in ensuring they were up to speed before enforcement started.

That enormous effort also clearly paid off in low gang-membership districts.

Region 7 director Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond says Southern’s Invercargill-based gang liaison officer has “a good relationship” with gangs in the area and attended an issue-free national Mongrel Mob hui.

“However, we are planning again for the Burt Munro Challenge motorcycle rally in Invercargill at Waitangi weekend. In previous years, there has been a large gang presence so will see what happens,” Anthony says.

Sally also believes communication lines with gangs are a lot clearer in Eastern district because of Police’s planning. “Zero tolerance is a lot easier to explain to gangs rather than trying to step around the issue.”