Canterbury rural commander calls for more mental health resourcing

Canterbury needs more mental health and family harm resourcing, rather than more police, says Inspector Peter Cooper.

The Rural Canterbury area police commander says there is a perception youth crime and retail crime are on the rise soaking up police time.

In reality, family harm and mental health callouts occupy the bulk of police resources.

‘‘We would always want more police, but there is so much to consider and it is about what Canterbury as a whole needs,’’ he says.

‘‘I would rather see more people working in the mental health and the family harm spaces.

‘‘That would be our greatest assistance as it would allow us to go back to our core roles.’’

Youth crime and retail crime have hit the headlines recently with a spate of ‘‘ram raids’’ around the country, but Cooper says the increase in these crimes is consistent with the increase in population.

Road policing is also on the increase, he says.

‘‘Our demand is never going to diminish and I expect it will continue to grow, and when you talk about youth crime it is only a part of what we do.

‘‘There are huge issues around our community, but we don’t have the same level of youth crime as other parts of the country.’’

Cooper says there has been one ‘‘ram raid’’ incident in the Waimakariri district, while the few incidents in the Selwyn district were linked to Christchurch-based offenders.

While it was important for people to feel safe, Cooper says the environment is very different from 10 years ago.

When he first moved to Rangiora 20 years ago the population was 11,000. Since then Rangiora’s population has nearly doubled.

Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Amberley have seen rapid population growth and the opening of the motorway two years ago effectively made them ‘‘satellites of Christchurch’’.

‘‘It is easy to come and go in a short period of time, so access is both good and bad.’’

The post-Covid environment is also stretching police resources, Cooper says.

Nationally police responded to more than 1.3 million family harm incidents last year, 13 per cent up on the previous year and 47 per cent higher than 2017.

It means police are responding to a family harm incident every three minutes nationally, compared to every 15 minutes for youth and retail crime.

Mental health callouts were up 20 per cent last year compared to the previous year and 55 per cent more than 2017.

‘‘There are a lot of factors coming out of the lockdown environment and we are finding ourselves in a new world post-Covid,’’ Cooper says.

‘‘These incidents are very personal and they are involving people, rather than property, so we need to look after people first.’’

Mental health incidents place a strain on North Canterbury’s police resources, as police were required to escort the person into Christchurch for an assessment.