Crime No.1 fear East coast electoral candidate finds

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne supermarkets have escaped a huge rise in reported crime but only because of Cyclone Gabrielle,

Those are the findings of a new report from supermarket cooperative Foodstuffs, which the National Party’s East Coast electorate candidate says shows New Zealand and Gisborne need to “toughen up” on crime.

Grocers running the North Island’s New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square stores recorded a nearly 40 percent (38.2 percent) increase in retail crime between February and April of this year, with daily incidents of assault, aggression, threatening behaviour, abuse and theft.

“Our grocers have never seen retail crime at these levels. It’s an extremely concerning trend and it’s unacceptable,” Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin said.

The FoodStuffs group includes New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square stores.

“Grocers say shoplifters are becoming increasingly aggressive and violent. Repeat offenders are responsible for 36 percent of all retail crime incidents and the number of repeat offenders has increased by 34 percent from last year.

“Retail crime went up in every region of the North Island in the February-to-April quarter, except Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne which were heavily impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.

“There’s no postcode for the current wave of crime. It’s in the cities, the regions, and in our small communities too. It’s right across the North Island.”

National’s Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell said the state of law and order in New Zealand had been laid bare by the country’s largest supermarket chain.

“Kiwis are clearly feeling the effects of this crime wave, based on a Weekend Herald poll which showed 95 percent of Kiwis do not feel safer than they did five years ago.”

National’s East Coast electorate candidate Dana Kirkpatrick said that was echoed  by what people here had told her.

“I spent last Friday afternoon meeting business owners up and down Gladstone Road. The main thing they are concerned about is crime.

“In fact in most of the discussions I have across the electorate crime is the number one thing people are concerned about.

“We believe firmly that people should be able to run their businesses and live their lives without being worried about crime. We need to give police the power to deal with criminals and we need to ensure that there are the correct support mechanisms around youth offenders to get them out of the systemic life of crime that many of them have become used to.

“The cost-of-living crisis is a concern and in my view does contribute to criminal behaviour, as does gang activity. It’s time we toughened up and made a stand for those of us who live law-abiding lives and don’t deserve to have our possessions pinched.”