Gangs Act 2024 – The Legal Consequences
Since becoming law on 21 November 2024, the first criminal charges have been filed under the Gangs Act 2024 (“the Act”). A lot has been said about the Act, its passage through Parliament, and the potential impact on civil rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of association.
It can be helpful to take a step back and look at what the Act means in practice, and what new enforcement tools can be used by Police and the courts. The Act lists 35 recognised “gangs” in a Schedule to the Act (Schedule 2), which is subject to amendment by executive order.
In general terms, the Act introduces four main tools that can be split into two categories.
The first category relates to the gang insignia ban. You might have heard this called the “gang patch ban,” although it is misleading to use the language of a “gang patch.” Under the Act, ‘insignia’ includes signs, symbols, and representations that are commonly used to denote gang support or affiliation. So, we are already seeing things like baseball caps and jewellery falling foul of the insignia ban.
The second category relates to gang members’ ability to associate with each other.
Both categories – gang insignia ban and gang association law – include lower-level rules that impact everyone and can be enforced on the street level by Police, and higher-level rules that only impact specific people once a Court puts an order in place. The table below gives an illustration.
| GANG INSIGNIA BAN | GANG ASSOCIATION LAW | |
| Police enforcement tools(no need for a Court order) | Gang insignia ban in public | Dispersal notice |
| Court-ordered enforcement tools | Gang Insignia Prohibition Order | Non-consorting order |
- Gang insignia ban in public. This creates a new type of crime. A person who displays gang insignia at any time in a public place, without reasonable excuse, is liable to a penalty up to a maximum of six months’ imprisonment, or a $5,000.00 fine.
A “public place” does not include an “online place” such as an internet site. However, displaying insignia from the window of a house or vehicle is likely to be deemed public.
There are some limited defences, such as where the display is for artistic or educational purposes, media reporting, documentaries, law enforcement, or training for government agencies/local authorities. However, the operation of this law is likely to be very strict.
On conviction, forfeiture applies. The thing on which the insignia is displayed is liable to be forfeited. This might not be so concerning in the case of a hat or t-shirt – but may lead to extraordinary results if an insignia is imprinted on an expensive motor vehicle or piece of jewellery, for instance.
Three convictions within five years will lead to a “Gang Insignia Prohibition Order,” which controversially extends to private possession of insignia as well as display in public. - Gang Insignia Prohibition Order. These Orders, sometimes called a “GIPO,” do not apply to everyone. They must be court-ordered where a repeat offender is convicted of the public insignia offence for a third (or subsequent) time within five years.
A GIPO prohibits all possession of insignia, including in private homes – and even simply insignia being present at the home – so, if a person gets a GIPO, then is found with a visitor in his or her house wearing gang insignia, he or she is technically in breach of the GIPO.
A GIPO lasts for five years, and a breach is punishable by up to one year’s imprisonment.
The GIPO regime may be the most controversial part of the Act, because it was introduced late in the legislative process, and because it has the potential to lead to an increase in search warrant applications to search GIPO-affected people’s homes. The Law Society has raised concerns about possible repeated searches by Police that unfairly impact whānau and communities in which gang members reside.
It may take some time before the first GIPOs are ordered, because a GIPO requires three convictions for the public insignia ban offence, and that only became an offence on 21 November 2024. For that reason, how the GIPO regime works in practice probably won’t be clear for several months or possibly years. - Dispersal notices. Police can issue these notices to people to break up gang meetings. Police must have reasonable grounds to think that the individual is one of three or more gang members gathering in a public place, and to believe the notice is necessary to avoid disrupting the activities of other members of the community.
Dispersal notices are a Police tool, not a Court Order. They may be similar in effect to Police Safety Orders (used to separate spouses in cases of suspected family violence), in the sense that they can be issued on the spot for a temporary period. The notices take effect as soon as they are served and have effect for seven days from the gang meeting, unless varied or reviewed during that time.
There are limits: dispersal notices can’t be used to stop immediate family from gathering, or to stop people gathering in custody, or at work, or while accessing educational or health care services.
The Act defines “immediate family” as encompassing any member of the person’s family, whānau, or other culturally recognised family group, who is in a close relationship with the person. This can include, for example, spouses, children, stepchildren, whāngai, siblings, parents, grandparents, and more. Dispersal notices and Non-consorting orders should not be used to interfere with these relationships.
There is a process for applying to a Police Sergeant (or higher rank) for a limited variation of a notice, or to the Commissioner of Police for variation or revocation, but the obvious issue here is that the notices only last for up to seven days, and in our experience, it is almost impossible to gain any traction with Police decision-makers within that timeframe.
It’s a crime to breach a dispersal notice, with the same maximum penalty as the public insignia ban: six months’ imprisonment or a $5,000.00 fine. - Non-consorting orders: If a dispersal notice is an order to “go away,” a Non-consorting order is an order to “stay away.” It is a Court order, which the Commissioner of Police must request, and it lasts for three years. It can be made if the Court finds that the person and the named associates, who the person must stay away from, are “specified gang offenders,” i.e., gang members who have committed more serious crimes, generally those punishable by a term of imprisonment of seven years or more.
Before making a Non-consorting order, the Court must weigh up whether the detrimental impact would outweigh the societal benefits of free association.
Non-consorting orders cannot be used to separate immediate family members, or people gathering in custody, or at work, or in education, or accessing health care. A Non-consorting order can be discharged on special application if the Court finds the person is no longer a gang member, or no longer a serious risk.
As mentioned, the Act is very new. At the time of writing, it has been in force less than a month. It is difficult to predict how the court-ordered tools under the Act – GIPOs and Non-consorting orders – will play out. While the gang insignia ban and dispersal notices have attracted a lot of publicity, the court-ordered parts of the Act may be less well-known and questions may arise at any time, especially because GIPOs and Non-consorting orders last for a number of years. If you have any questions about the Act, we suggest you seek legal advice as soon as possible.