New Zealand National Gang List (NGL) – bimonthly numbers of individuals:

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1. What’s driven more Kiwis towards gangs over the last 6 years?
2. Have gang numbers decreased in the last 6 months? If so, how?

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Notes:

• All available data from February 2016 to February 2022 has been shared in the graph above.
• We do not know the date when the April 2022 bi-monthly figure will be available.
• We could not find publicly available NGL data, so it is likely another OIA request will be required to get any new data.
• Some of the rise in gang numbers could be attributed to better collation of data.
• All numbers are provisional and subject to revision.

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OIA request notes provided to us by the NZ Police:

• Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request dated 14 March 2022, in which you asked for: …a table showing all available NGL data by all available months and years.
• The table below [above] provides the number of individuals on the National Gang List (NGL) by available month and year.
• The NGL is comprised of information held by the Gang Intelligence Centre (GIC) agencies about patched or prospect New Zealand Adult Gang (NZAG) members and does not record gang associates or those who may be affiliated. The NGL was created for intelligence purposes, not for the purpose of counting gang membership numbers or to act as a reporting tool.
• The information is collected for the purpose of maintaining oversight of the gang environment, to enhance the understanding of the scale of social harm caused by gangs, and to support the identification of prevention and intervention opportunities.
• Individuals are added to the NGL following a validation process carried out by Police districts and national intelligence staff. The following factors are taken into consideration when validating gang membership (patched or prospect) status:
  • Intelligence from operations and search warrants.
  • An ‘Intelligence noting’ identifying an individual wearing a patch.
  • Visible evidence of members wearing a patch.
  • Certain prominent or significant gang ‘patch’ tattoos.
• It should be noted that the indicators that would lead to someone being added to the list, such as being observed wearing a gang patch, are much more visible and reliable than the indicators that might lead to them being removed from the list, such as good intelligence suggesting they have been de-patched. The names of people who simply drift away from gang involvement are much less likely to be removed from the list due
  to the challenges of corroborating their exit.
• Rising numbers on the NGL are attributable to a variety of factors, including changes in recording processes and methodology, improved intelligence collection and collation capability, as well as new individuals being identified as joining NZAGs. Police continues to improve the quality and detail of data relating to gang membership at a district and national level in order to inform the delivery of policing services and support the identification of prevention and intervention opportunities.
• Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police proactively releases some information and documents that may be of interest to the public. Therefore, an anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on the New Zealand Police website.

Thank you to the Factors who helped pull this together.

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SOURCE:

OIA request 14 March 2022 (see details above)

You may be interested in the following website links for additional Policing statistics:

• www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publications-statistics including the www.policedata.nz section
• www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publications/corporate/information-releases

Data published by New Zealand Police
(c) Crown Copyright
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

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Did we make a mistake, or have you got smarter data? Let us know.