Police unclear on gang ban bylaw

ANDREW KOUBARIDIS | 20th July 2006

POLICE have given council "contradictory" messages about the proposed gang bylaw, Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws says.

Mr Laws will meet deputy Police Commissioner Lyn Provost later this month to get to the bottom of police concerns.

A meeting between Mr Laws and Mrs Provost was to have taken place last week but was postponed because of the civil defence emergency.

The Chronicle reported on June 24 that the Wanganui District Council's draft bylaw ? to ban gang regalia from the central city ? had run into trouble, with legal challenges a possibility if human rights concerns weren't addressed.

A legal expert from Victoria University told the Chronicle in May the proposed bylaw breached human rights and wouldn't work.

Police were understood to be concerned about some aspects of it, and Mr Laws wanted the bylaw to be protected from legal challenges.

The bylaw was suggested after a string of gang clashes in the city this year.

Mr Laws told the Wanganui Chronicle he planned to "work through the issues" with Mrs Provost ? but the issues weren't clear.

"We're not quite sure [what they are]. The police advice has been contradictory so I have to sit down with Lyn Provost to work it through," he said.

He believed many of the concerns held by police were if the Bill of Rights could be accommodated within a bylaw.

"Within the police there are different points of view? between the cops on the ground and national headquarters. The police association and local police are saying give us the power."

The bill of rights can be suspended by a local bill, passed by parliament, but not a bylaw.

Council expected to get some flak from people who questioned if the bill of rights should be suspended if a local bill is approved.

"You could use the Kahui family as an analogy. They are entitled to stay quiet but is that in everyone's best interest?

"Sometimes the greater good prevails over the needs of the individual."

Whangarei police yesterday rang Mr Laws to discuss the bylaw and how it could be implemented in the north. "It's important we get it right. If we use a bill [instead of a bylaw] I wouldn't expect there to be a legal challenge."

A spokesman from the Office of the Police Commissioner, Jon Neilson, said if the parliamentary option was used police would probably make a submission.

"It's been dealt with at a local level. We're talking with the district council and at mayoral level," he said. Mr Neilson said discussions would continue but declined to elaborate on police concerns.