Drugs and Crime

The police were next, headed by Tom Cummings, director of the Police College at Trentham. He identified three problems in New Zealand society: narcotics, gangs and juvenile crime. The first, he said, caused individual tragedies in the lives of those who became addicted to hard drugs, led to petty crime and an increase in armed robbery, and perhaps worst of all, was part and parcel of the world of big time brutal crime.

Bikie gangs had caused the "demise of country policeman". while there was a clearly discernible trend towards crimes committed by juveniles who should have been in school. Arson, particularly of schools, was becoming a major problem.