Gangs outnumber police in New Zealand – But That’s Not All

Written By: Mountain Tui - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 27th, 2026 - 7 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, crime, law and "order", mark mitchell, paul goldsmith, police - Tags: domestic violence, gangs, Meth crisis, Police recruits, Violent crime survey

Excerpt from Mountain Tui Substack

In 2024, under questioning about why police were culling the gang membership list on National’s watch, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon snapped.

“It’s not about the friggin’ targets” he lashed out angrily.

Not his first time and it wouldn’t be his last.

In July 2025, when Labour leader Chris Hipkins pointed out that National’s signature Family Boost policy had been a “flop”, with 25% of money spent on administration, and fewer than 50 families getting the promised package, Luxon snapped at “frickin’” Chris Hipkins too.

Yesterday, Luxon set out to enjoy his moment in the sun, to shine and boast about falling violent crime incidents in quarterly results of what used to be an annual survey.

Under National, Paul Goldsmith, Mark Mitchell and Luxon have been keen to use it regularly to “drum in” a message that law and order has purportedly improved under their government.

But has it really?

Police have been instructed to pull back from mental health incidents (which saw health professionals quit in response), and most domestic/family violence incidents too
As domestic violence advocates state, this could, and likely, reverses “decades of progress in encouraging victims to seek help”

Police are also overstretched. In 2025, brass told police to ignore some retail crime incidents, resulting in 5000 retail crime complaints ignored, and investigations halved. It was only overturned when media got wind of this and Richard Chambers stepped in to stem the embarrassment.
These factors all result in violent crime incident survey numbers falling. Less victims willing to come forward, less police to take notice.

About those gangs

When National were in power, they used increasing gang numbers as “evidence” that Labour were soft on crime and soft on gangs.
Yesterday’s report that gang numbers have surged 13% – hitting never before seen records – contrasts sharply with National’s old narrative.

Experts roundly agree that gang numbers are likely to be much higher too, given police are no longer able to easily identify them.

In 2024, Mark Mitchell was warned increasing carceration would increase gang numbers – as reported on Mountain Tui in 2024, incarceration was an explicit goal of National and has now been met with record numbers of Kiwis in prison (double the rate of Canada and significantly higher than Australia) and at a cost of $200,000 per prisoner
And with National’s launch of the Waikato PPP $1.9 billion mega prison without a business case, long considered a hard recruitment ground for gangs, we have seen those numbers continue to increase – now surging up 500 plus. a year

And the gang numbers in themselves are not the largest issue, even though realistically, it is still very serious:

National have allocated a majority of police to city centres they care about, such as Auckland. Think of the rural offices and those with a large gang presence. It must be frustrating.

National also can’t recruit the promised 500 frontline police, and has watered down requirements so much, they have recruited 349 police who they don’t know can swim or not. (Once again this has been reversed after media reports got out)

That’s not all – domestic violence has surged to levels not seen since 2018 – perhaps unsurprising given the lack of support, cuts to charities and frontline womens’ services, and increasing disenfranchisement and cost of living pressures.

And categories of serious crime are mainly all up according to MOJ data from October 2025.

The drug crisis also continues unabated, with a 200%-400% increase in meth use on National’s watch in what is being called a methamphetamine crisis across the country.

Cocaine is also up, gang profits have doubled, and extremely worrying is organised crime syndicates are growing – many with international links including from China and Southeast Asia, Latin American cartels, and Australian gangs.

The real and most pervasive issue we face under National, ACT and NZ First is that all three parties persist in prioritising headlines and PR over tackling the deeper root causes and drivers of crime in our country.

That type of rot will not be easy to undo.

7 comments on “Gangs outnumber police in New Zealand – But That’s Not All ”

Comment on post

Patricia Bremner 1

27 February 2026 at 1:28 pm

It follows Judith Collins fudging Police stats during her stint as Minister of Police under Key.

Now we have PR and funding cuts to Border and Customs staffing.

They say one thing and do another. Abysmal. Move on 7th of Nov. CoC.

Reply
- Foreign Waka 1.1
  
  28 February 2026 at 9:10 am
  
  So, what is your solution to the actual problem? I don't really care about politicians, they are all the same. Labour wont be able to hold this "tide" – it makes me lough, those crims are not party bound.
  
  I like to hear about a feasible solution to stem the drug tide, the gangs and crime.
  
  Reply
  - Incognito 1.1.1
    
    28 February 2026 at 10:44 am
    
    I like to hear about a feasible solution to stem the drug tide, the gangs and crime.
    
    You seem to be assuming that this is all just one (admittedly big) problem with one solution (aka one size fits all). If so, I assume that you’ll reject any genuine reply here, like you reject all politicians outright (and singling out Labour).
    
    Here’s something to challenge your thinking:
    
    More New Zealanders are buying and selling drugs online, according to the latest findings of the New Zealand Drug Trends Survey.
    
    […]
    
    Nationally, one third of methamphetamine buyers reported purchasing from gangs.
    
    […]
    
    Gang involvement in other drugs was far lower, with just 13 percent of respondents saying they purchased cannabis from gangs, 6 percent reporting buying cocaine from gangs, 5 percent and 3 percent of MDMA and LSD users respectively reporting having bought from gang members.
    
    "People talk in general terms about gangs and drugs, but gangs are actually most involved in methamphetamine and a little bit of cannabis – there's a whole lot of drug types where gangs aren't particularly involved."
    
    He said there were some historical associations between gangs and methamphetamine, but it was also due to the international methamphetamine supply connections some gangs had developed, and the profitability of methamphetamine.
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/560896/drug-trends-survey-paints-clearer-picture-of-gangs-place-in-the-market
    
    Reply
    - Foreign Waka 1.1.1.1
      
      28 February 2026 at 12:18 pm
      
      You have a lot of information but I am genuinely interested in a solution. I have seen none thus far from any corner.
      
      Except the brachial approach in El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Do we want that, do we end up going there?
      
      Reply
      - Incognito 1.1.1.1.1
        
        28 February 2026 at 3:26 pm
        
        You have a lot of information but I am genuinely interested in a solution.
        
        A solution for what exactly? The point of my reply was to make you think and hopefully realise that what you were referring to (i.e., “drug tide, the gangs and crime”) are a set of complex interconnected issues that have no single ‘solution’ as such. The details & numbers are not so important, the bigger picture is.
        
        I have seen none thus far from any corner.
        
        Following on from the above, you won’t see any, I think, but if anybody offers you a ‘solution’, I’d view it with the same caution as snake oil (aka overly simplistic and populist). A good approach would be a holistic systemic proactive and long-term one addressing some of the deep underlying factors rather than symptom-focussed reactive & reactionary short-term reductionist ‘solutions’.
        
        Except the brachial approach in El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. Do we want that, do we end up going there?
        
        I don’t know what you mean and I assume your question was rhetorical.
        
        Reply
Hunter Thompson II 2

28 February 2026 at 9:32 am

Gangs peddling narcotics must be one of NZ's few growth industries.

Reply
- Incognito 2.1
  
  28 February 2026 at 10:46 am
  
  And you would be wrong; see my comment @ 1.1.1 (https://thestandard.nz/gangs-outnumber-police-in-new-zealand-but-thats-not-all/#comment-2056665).
  
  Reply