Police Minister Chris Hipkins says officers' commitment to punish repeat offenders is showing criminals there will be consequences for their actions.
After months of brazen and violent crime, the Government on Wednesday announced a suite of measures to crack down on gangs - promising to "hit them where it hurts".
But there's also been a spate of robberies at dairies and jewellery stores - in some cases committed by children as young as 12 years old.
Hipkins told Newshub Nation on Saturday it's not possible to stop every crime but the police's work in following up on "recidivist offenders" shows criminals there will be consequences.
"The police have been actively following up on those recidivist offenders. I think over 30 young people covering about 200 different offences have been arrested and are going through the judicial system as a result of that," he told Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd.
"It's never going to be possible for police to prevent every youth offence. We've got some kids who are getting into trouble.
"Police can't be on every street corner to detect that ahead of it but they are sending a very clear signal with the way they're following up that there will be consequences."
Hipkins took over from Poto Williams as Police Minister last month and said success in the role in terms of gangs will be a reduction in offending, but he hasn't set himself a target.
"No, I haven't [set a target], because actually what we're doing through the police is disrupting the gang activity," he said.
"If we can disrupt their drug dealing, we can have fewer drugs on the street causing the irreparable harm that they often do, that's a good thing but I don't have a specific measure for that."
But Hipkins did say there are measures that show if gang offending is decreasing.
"We look at wastewater, for example, we know whether drug consumption is going up or down. Now we want to see that trend pointing down. It's been pointing up for a while," he told Newshub Nation.
"You have to look at the broad range of measures. Is drug consumption going down? That would be a good thing. Are there fewer people joining gangs? Yes, that would be a good thing. Are there fewer young people falling onto that pathway, that leads them to more serious criminal offending? That would be a good thing. So there's a range of measures.
"I'm not going to pick one out and say it's more important than all the others."
Hipkins said one way to reduce youth offending is getting kids to feel part of a community by involving them in after-school activities.
"We've seen some good programs. We funded through the COVID-19 Relief Fund… to have the Akonga fund, where they funded a number of community-based initiatives that were about getting young people constructively engaged in things."
Hipkins pointed to the Billy Graham Boxing Academy in Lower Hutt as one initiative that is working.
"The Billy Graham Boxing Academy is getting kids off the streets, doing something constructive outside of school hours," he said.
"We know from the feedback from the local schools that actually those kids are more constructively engaged when they are at school because they've got that positive influence outside the school gate.
"There are dozens of those programs around the country now. We're having a good look at that and saying, well, what's working? Can we do more in that area?"
Hipkins, who is also the Education Minister, said a worry for him is the number of kids constantly missing school, which could lead to them getting into trouble.
"The number of kids who are chronically absent has increased from about 4 percent to about 7.5 percent.
"Now, that is a really concerning number because those are the kids who we should be worried about. Those are the kids who are out and about on the streets who aren't regularly attending school and they are getting into trouble.
"That's the group we've got to target."
Watch the full interview with Chris Hipkins above.
Watch Newshub Nation 9:30am Saturday/10am Sunday on TV3 and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. NZ On Air supports Newshub Nation.
