Stuart Nash: Keep our police stations open

Napier MP Stuart Nash

Police men and women are often at the top of lists of those whom we trust the most in our society. And quite rightly so, as they are the guardians of our safety and the protectors of our communities. Recently, however, that reputation has come under threat in Hawke's Bay.

Last month, the Eastern Region's new District Commander, Sandra Venables, announced that the Napier, Hastings and Gisborne police stations are to be closed after hours; starting this month. She said there would still be people inside the stations, but that the "closed" sign would be on the front door.

The justification for this is that it is a poor use of resource because few people come to the station after dark. What she doesn't appear to understand is that this is just as much about perception as it is reality, and if the police begin to lose the confidence of the public, they are in trouble.

The community has, rightly or wrongly, a set of expectations around law and order.

One of the most important is that the police will be available 24/7.

So when the services of a constable are required, one will turn up in record time. Due to recent cutbacks, many in the region already know that if a car is broken into, or a house is burgled, don't expect any help; well, certainly not in a hurry.

A number of people I have talked to have only lodged jobs with the police because they are required to for insurance purposes.

We have already had cuts to non-sworn staff in the region. Often these are the people who put the pieces of the jigsaw together that allow sworn staff to spend more time doing what we want them to do: Fight crime and catch the bad guys, or, just as importantly, be out and about amongst the community in a proactive way.

The Eastern Region (Hawke's Bay and Gisborne) is one of the worst for violent crime in the country.

In 2014, there were 254 reported sexual assaults, up from 189 two years ago; 3385 reported assaults (and only 68 per cent of these were solved); more than 1000 reported harassment and threatening behaviour crimes (up 10.4 per cent on last year) and there were 3385 "acts intended to cause injury (up 1.5 per cent) .

Crimes involving "serious assaults resulting in injury" have gone from a consistent low (500/high 400s for the 10 years between 1995 to 2005) to more than 900 every year for the last four years.

In fact, for at least the past two years, the Eastern region has had the highest level of recorded crime per 10,000 people of any district in the country. This includes the highest rate of "crime intended to cause injury" (double the rate of the Canterbury, Auckland, Wellington and Southern police districts); the highest rate of "sexual assault and related offences" (double that of Auckland and Canterbury); the highest rate for "abduction, harassment, and other related offences against a person" and double the rate of the next highest police district for "dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons".

Only Auckland has more thefts, and Northland more illicit drug offences than us.

In fact, in 15 of the 16 crime categories recorded, Eastern is either the highest or the second highest out of the 12 police districts for numbers of crimes committed per 10,000 people.

These are definitely not statistics that suggest our region should be cutting services and staff. Quite the contrary. The police hierarchy must now start to regain the confidence they deserve in our communities.

In fact, the men and women in uniform on the ground are fantastic, and I know a number also share my grave concerns. But we need to now send a very clear message to this Government and Police National Headquarters: Cutting numbers in the region with the highest crime is eroding the confidence the public have in the ability of the police to protect us and our families, and it's not good enough.

It's time Police Minister Michael Woodhouse stood up and started fighting for the issues around law and order that are important to the people of the Eastern Region. This is not a time to cut budgets. And Ms Venables, a good start would be keeping our police stations open.

-Stuart Nash is the MP for Napier.

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