Crime Prevention

Tackling crime together A good news story!

Between January and March 2020, the North Harbour district was plagued by an offender who targeted primarily small businesses, cafés and the like. In late March, Waitemata East burglary team arrested a 36-year old male and charged him with 25 burglaries. He is currently before the courts.

There were a number of key elements that advanced our inquiries considerably. All of these are essential crime prevention activities that we discuss consistently:

1. Securing the premises and valuables 2. Alarm systems 3. CCTV capability 4. Advising the police promptly 5. Being aware of forensics

It is good practice for business owners to:

Make arrangements to either remove cash floats from premises overnight or have an appropriate way to secure the float on site. A safe is ideal. Install a monitored alarm system. This can be highly beneficial as the security company is a capable guardian in your absence. Ensuring it is monitored could provide our burglary team with good avenues of inquiry. Put in CCTV cameras on site. These were very important in our recent investigation, and not only captured the offender committing offences, but also linked him to other critical inquiries being made. Recognise the importance of forensics. Examining each crime scene is imperative – indeed, it played a crucial part in this offender’s arrest. So, however tempted you are to clean up the mess left by a criminal, please don’t act until our scene of crimes officers’ have arrived and assessed the situation.

All of this should highlight how much damage just one offender can have on a community. But, if sound prevention activities are being implemented by everyone, these incidents can be reduced.

Ensuring that your premises is secure is critical, and so is understanding why other prevention activities work. The NZ Police website has a wealth of practical tips about how to protect your business. These cover such topics as:

Shop displays and layout for crime prevention • Position your cash register near the

entry and greet every customer as they come in. • Use large mirrors to see every part of your store. Handling cash safely • Varying the banking time each day • Use adult staff to do the banking (preferably in pairs)

Make use of these resources!

Contacting Dave Loader at Business North Harbour to see how his initiatives can help you and your business, and getting to know your local community constable are also excellent steps in the right direction.

The strength in the Waitemata East community is the power in partnership, and acknowledging that we alone can’t make the community safer – it will be “Safer Communities Together”.

COVID-19 Alert Level 2 update

With the move to Alert Level 2, all Waitemata East (North Shore) police stations are again open to the public. In common with other organisations, we have to follow correct social distancing protocols, which means that access to the buildings will be controlled. We ask you to please be patient.

We have all noticed the obvious increase in traffic and people out and about, and this also means a potential increase in people or vehicles seen acting suspiciously. Irrespective of what Alert Level we are in, NZ Police needs to hear from you. If you see something or someone acting suspiciously in your neighbourhood, please contact us.

Senior Sergeant Scott Cunningham Area Youth & Communities Manager Waitemata East Area | Waitematā District

021 191 4421 scott.cunningham@police.govt.nz Waitemata East Area HQ, 52 Parkway Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland www.police.govt.nz