Strike Force Raptor: it’s hard to argue against this idea.

This is National’s plan to copy Australia’s crackdown on gangs. What they’ve done in Australia is set up this special gang unit, Strike Force Raptor, and these guys’ sole job is to hassle and prosecute the gangs.

If the gangs don’t pay their traffic fines, the Raptors turn up to take away their driver licences. If the gangs do unconsented work on their gang houses, the Raptors turn up and shut the pad down. If they serve alcohol at the pad, the Raptors turn up, use liquor laws and shut the pad down. 

And they make life hell for gang members. How can you argue against it? No one wants to defend gangs.

Politically, it’s a good move from National. Yes, it’s predictable but it’ll play well with voters.

And practically, we probably need this. Australia’s gang members are being deported here and they are next level in contrast to our gangs

But as for whether it’ll work, it’s really hard to know. There’s very little information available about the success in Australia. Since the raptors were established over there in 2009, it doesn’t look like they managed to drive down gang numbers: in a three year period between 2012 and 2015, gang numbers still went up by 34 per cent.

But what they have managed to do is drive gangs underground and out of sight. Gangs aren’t nearly as audacious as our lot who think it’s perfectly fine to hold initiation ceremonies on Te Mata Peak in Hawke’s Bay.

And clearly the cops think it’s working. The task force was originally only set up in New South Wales, but police around the country call them for advice. 

So there’s the potential for this to work here, but, this isn’t and can’t be whole picture. It’ll hammer the gang members once they’re in the gangs, but it’s not going to stop them from joining gangs.

The only way you stop kids from wanting to join up is if you give them an alternative. A chance to be good at sport, a job to earn cash, anything other than this nonsense.

 Until we figure out how keep kids out of gangs, gangs will always be around, and no matter how hard we police them, we won’t stop them.

But, if this is all we’ve got, and given we have Australian-style gang members turning up here, it’s a welcome idea.