Police staff in your area have been busy over the last two weeks.
A number of vehicles have been stolen from our community during that period. As a result of this offending police have apprehended a man and a woman from Napier who now face charges in relation to some of three stolen vehicles and a man from Palmerston North is sought in relation to unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, theft and failing to stop.
Across the entire Manawatu Policing area an average of 27 vehicles are unlawfully taken every week. For a number of reasons this has spiked to closer to 40 a week for the last few weeks; the Tararua area is certainly not immune to this. Although it is hard to prevent a motivated offender from taking your car, simple precautionary steps like parking your vehicle off the road where possible, always leaving it locked and always removing the keys can certainly deter offenders.
On October 4, a traffic operation was conducted in an effort to make our roads safer. It was disappointing that in a short operation between Norsewood and Eketahuna 25 road users were detected either speeding or not wearing their seatbelts. In the month of September nine drivers in the Tararua have also been apprehended driving with excess breath alcohol and are facing prosecution as a result. We have had a shocking year on Central District roads with 40 deaths already this year. Across the wider Manawatu there have been seven fatalities in the last month alone. If you are on the road please watch your speed, always wear your seatbelt, and never drink and drive.
Police staff in Woodville, Pahiatua and Dannevirke have received increasing reports of dirt bikes being ridden around streets and local parks. The riding of some of these people is at times dangerous and is often inconsiderate. Dirt bikes are causing damage to public places with the burden for repairs falling back on the owners of the property - often the Council and thus ratepayers. If you witness this type of behaviour, please report it to us. If you are able to record a detailed description of the bike and rider and also any address they are seen to go to it will assist us in making inquiries to identify those responsible and hold them to account.
