Dairy crime fund ‘token gesture’

The multimillion-dollar package announced yesterday to tackle increasingly violent retail crime is merely a token gesture by the Government to address crime where it has already reached epidemic levels, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich says.

After a day of protest by dairy owners, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used her media conference yesterday to announce what she called the most significant crime prevention financial package in recent memory.

It included a $4000 fog cannon subsidy scheme for all small shops and dairies in New Zealand that wanted a fog cannon installed.

It also included a dollar-for-dollar $4 million fund to support three North Island councils with crime prevention programmes, such as improving street lighting or installing CCTV cameras, in Auckland, Hamilton and the Bay of Plenty.

Mr Radich said it was not a case of Dunedin missing out on funding, rather a case of the Government only "attacking the hotspots" where retail crime had reached "epidemic" levels.

"The whole country is experiencing the issue," he said.

"The whole country is worried and the whole country is concerned about what might be done about it.

"However, for the little amount of money they are prepared to put into it, they are better to focus it in the worst affected areas and see if they can make a difference, see if they can do something that works.

"Given that they’re only putting a ‘token gesture’ of money into it they might as well go for the very worst affected areas and see if they can make a difference."

Answering questions yesterday, Ms Ardern said the funding had been in planning stages well ahead of the stabbing death of 34-year-old dairy worker Janak Patel, who died last week in an alleged aggravated robbery in Sandringham, Auckland.

"No-one should go to their place of work feeling they are vulnerable to senseless violence and crime," Ms Ardern said.

Mr Patel’s death prompted protests yesterday in front of Ms Ardern’s Mt Albert electorate office and outside deputy prime minister Grant Robertson's electorate office in Wellington.

Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal called for dairies across New Zealand to close their doors and cease trading from 12.30pm to 2.30pm as a show of respect for Mr Patel.

Dundas Corner Dairy owner Mabel Ma closed her North Dunedin dairy for two hours yesterday as a...
Dundas Corner Dairy owner Mabel Ma closed her North Dunedin dairy for two hours yesterday as a sign of respect for Janak Patel, who was killed when a Sandringham, Auckland dairy was robbed last week. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH
Dundas Corner Dairy owner Mabel Ma, who closed her North Dunedin dairy for two hours yesterday, said she believed almost every dairy in the city had been robbed.

The unlucky ones were hurt during the incidents, she said.

Four years ago she fled her own store after she had a knife held in her face by a would-be robber.

Earlier this year a good friend was hit on the head with a hammer before his Mosgiel dairy was robbed of $3455 of tobacco.

"It’s safe in the South compared with the North, but we’re not sure what will happen next," Mrs Ma said yesterday.

"It could happen any day, any place, it could happen to me someday maybe."

She said she wanted better options available for her own self-defence, which included getting a gun.

Police Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday arming shop owners would put both the owners and their customers at risk.

Instead, fog cannons had a successful track record; businesses where they were deployed were not re-victimised, he said.

Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said police would have a more visible presence in the city centre during the holidays.

He acknowledged that did not help with suburban dairies.

"The public can have confidence that ... we have been able to catch, hold responsible, and put before the courts and secure convictions for those that do commit the robberies.

"They are and always will be a priority for us."

The man who attacked the Mosgiel dairy owner this year was this month jailed for four years and 11 months.

The man who brandished a knife at the Dundas Corner Dairy in 2018 was apprehended two days later.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

 

 

 

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