The Government has today announced new measures to combat retail crime - including a fog cannon subsidy scheme open to all small shops and dairies in New Zealand.
The announcement comes after the alleged murder of Sandringham shopkeeper Janak Patel last Wednesday.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said while youth crime “is now much lower than in the past, the risks and harm from ram raids and other retail crime is concerning communities and creating victims”.
“Shop owners and workers feel targeted. That’s unacceptable.
“Police are having a noticeable impact on offending rates, with ram raids during November down by 83% compared with August – 13 so far this month against a high of 75 in August. But we need to lock that progress in and sustain it,” Ardern said.
“The initiatives we’re announcing today make this the most significant crime prevention financial package in recent memory.
“It backs up police actions, through funding to support crime prevention initiatives, such as better street lighting and cameras and by investing in more fog cannons.”
It comes as many dairies across the country closed today for two hours to protest what were considered insufficient Government measures to address crime following the alleged murder of Janak Patel.
Patel (34) had been managing the Rose Cottage Superette in the Auckland suburb of Sandringham when he was stabbed to death following an alleged aggravated robbery on Wednesday last week.
A group of protesters also assembled outside Ardern’s electorate office in Mt Albert. The superette was within Ardern’s electorate.
The dairy didn’t qualify for a Government-subsidised fog cannon because it had not experienced enough crime, the Herald reported earlier.
Ardern said new funding of $4 million will be made available to local council to assist with crime prevention measures.
“This will be made up of $2 million for Auckland Council, $1 million for Hamilton Council and $1 million for the councils in the Bay of Plenty to match on a dollar for dollar basis by Councils for local crime prevention measures.
“These partnerships are likely to be focused on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) measures in geographic areas where small retailers are commonly targeted, such as street lighting, CCTV cameras and planters.
“Conversations have been had already between Police and government officials and Auckland Council, Hamilton Council and Bay of Plenty Councils to identify opportunities that can get started soon.
“We’re also announcing today that we will make funding available for all small shops and diaries to install fog cannons, adding to the 1000 that have already been installed as part of the fog cannon initiative. "
She also announced the extension of the Retail Crime Prevention Fund.
“The $6 million Retail Crime Prevention Fund was set up for small shops and dairies in early 2022 as offending shifted to ram raiding. Today, we’re expanding eligibility to aggravated robbery committed over the last year.
“Police are making progress on the number of stores accessing the fund. More than 100 shops now have installations approved, with 431 security measures allocated and underway. This includes 93 fog cannons, 78 security sirens, 57 alarms, 63 CCTV systems, 43 bollards and 36 roller doors.
“We’ll also continue our work with repeat offenders and their families.”
Ardern said funding of $4000 would be available for each shop, which would be able to have the fog cannon installed through an approved supplier, meaning they could access them directly.
Police Minister Chris Hipkins said this would be the first time the fog cannon and ram raid funds have operated at the same time.
“Despite global supply chain issues, police has been successful in ordering an extra 455 fog cannons, which are expected to arrive before Christmas. This adds to the 270 fog cannons that are currently in the country and have been allocated to affected shops,” Hipkins said.
“More challenging will be the time it takes to install them. The 1000 fog cannons that are already installed took four years, and despite Police doubling the number of local contractors that will do the work to six, it’s expected it will take till the second quarter of next year for the number of installations to start to ramp up.”
The fog cannon fund was set up in 2017 after aggravated robberies of commercial premises had doubled from 2015 – from 599 to 1170.
“It was expanded in 2018 and 2019, and 1000 fog cannon were installed by the end of 2021.
A 34-year-old man was arrested on Friday and charged with aggravated robbery and murder following Patel’s death. A second man, 42, was also arrested and had been charged with robbery. Both men were remanded in custody on Saturday, but the latter did appear in court today was again remanded in custody until December 14 at the Auckland High Court, when his case will be called at the same time as the man accused of murder.
A third person had also been charged with robbery and appeared in court today. The 36-year-old man was granted interim name suppression in his brief appearance. He was remanded in custody ahead of a bail hearing set down for December 5 in the Auckland District Court.
