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       In New Zealand’s Crackdown on Crime, What Part Can Maori Wardens Play?

       The strategies used by the Indigenous community policing alternative are in stark contrast to more muscular tactics pitched by the incoming government.

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       Maori Wardens, a group of Indigenous volunteers, patrolling the streets to check on store owners and residents in Auckland, New Zealand. Credit...Cornell Tukiri for The New York Times

       By Natasha Frost

       Reporting from Auckland, New Zealand

       Nov. 28, 2023

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       As tempers flared on a recent evening in a nightlife district in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, Joanne Paikea sensed an altercation — or even an arrest — brewing.

       “Bro, you know the cops are behind us,” she said, describing her efforts to soothe the surging tension between two groups. “So you’re either going to listen, or get arrested. It’s your choice. What do you want? To go home and have a feed, or get in the cells?”

       Ms. Paikea is a Maori Warden, one of about 1,000 Indigenous volunteers across New Zealand who minister to the vulnerable, calm the vexed and occasionally intervene with the violent, working independently of — but in tandem with — the police.

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       Natasha Frost writes the Europe Morning Briefing and reports on Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific from Melbourne, Australia. More about Natasha Frost

       A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 28, 2023, Section A , Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Maoris Wield Compassion To Tackle Minor Crimes . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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