Big drive to bring offenders to justice | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Police are trumpeting success from a major offensive on offenders they say are flouting the justice system.

Almost every police officer in the Canterbury district was assigned one to two offenders to locate in "Operation Justice" - to "clear the backlog" of people who were the subject of active warrants to arrest.

About 940 people were identified as targets as of December 1 last year.

Sergeant Ashley Tabb said yesterday that 591 of those people had been apprehended or had made voluntary appearances in court.

That left 349 still proving elusive. And many more people have been issued new warrants to arrest since that time.

Canterbury District Commander, Superintendent Dave Cliff, said the targets were people wanted for a "whole raft" of offences - ranging from breaching conditions of their parole or community work, to burglary, assault, robbery, drink-driving, drug offences and family violence.

Superintendent Cliff said was in the community's interest to see these people put in custody.

"These people are facing a charge because they have done something wrong," he said.

"These individuals are saying to the community, 'you can get stuffed'.

"We are the agents of the community in terms of justice. It is important they are held accountable for their offence," he said.

"It is wasting our time (looking for them) when we could be doing proactive work ... they need to be in custody as soon as possible."

And if you are wanted on an active warrant, Superintendent Cliff has a warning for you: "We are actively looking for you. We suggest you turn yourself in, rather than be arrested at an inopportune time, like on a Friday night."

Superintendent Cliff said some of the remaining people being targeted in the operation may have left Canterbury or left the country.

Those who went overseas would be arrested at the airport when they tried to re-enter New Zealand, he said.