Kaitāia's main street. The monitoring system was always in need of more volunteers.
Kaitāia's main street. The monitoring system was always in need of more volunteers.
Kaitāia’s CCTV system is proving a success in stamping out crime and anti-social behaviour, with the network recording more than 40 incidents in one month alone.
During January it appeared that a large number of community members were enjoying the great weather in the town and there was a lower level of incidents reported, Angela Phillips, from Safer Communities Kaitāia and KBA deputy-chairwoman, said.
However, there were several incidents in which the CCTV team were asked to conduct searches of the CCTV footage they had gathered.
‘’They range from young people harassing the public to locating an offender of serious harm to a community member,’’ she said.
Phillips said 44 incidents were noted while monitoring the network that month, with the police communications team asking for instant live monitoring of a suspect six times. Six pieces of footage were also sent to police to assist their investigations.
He said the network was all about protecting the community and preventing crimes and it was proving successful at both.
She gave the example of a CCTV monitor observing two youths acting suspiciously around cars in town. They kept an eye on the youths and captured them breaking into a car by smashing the window and ruining the steering column. The monitor followed them on other CCTV cameras and police caught up with them shortly afterwards.
Kaitāia’s CCTV network is preventing crime and anti-social behaviour in the town, but more cameras are needed.
‘’The success of the network really comes down to the network and keeping the integrity of the system in place. It can’t work if we don’t have everybody working together — us, the police, business owners and the community in general.
‘’This is all about the community good. It’s not about Big Brother or anything like that, it’s about protecting the community and preventing crime.’’
Phillips said the CCTV monitoring system was always in need of more volunteers and anybody who could pass police vetting and was willing to be trained, could apply to become a volunteer. Anyone interested should contact the KBA.
As well, a whopping 93 per cent had experienced anti-social behaviour around their workplaces in the past year.
This reflected the impact of anti-social behaviour on their sense of security, KBA chairman Josh Kirby said.
He said the anti-social behaviour survey conducted in November yielded valuable insights into the experiences and concerns of businesses within the Kaitāia Business Improvement District (BID).
With 64 per cent of respondents reporting that anti-social behaviour negatively impacted their physical and/or mental wellbeing, Kirby said this was a key driver.
‘’If that’s not addressed those people end up not wanting to work in the BID, and that’s not good. We already struggle to find good people to work in the area.”
As well, 83 per cent of respondents had taken action to address security concerns, including the installation of security cameras, fog cannons and hiring security guards.
This showed a willingness of the business community to tackle the problem and 22 per cent were keen to support a security patrol, similar to Whangārei’s City Safe initiative.
Kirby said the aim was to expand the town’s CCTV coverage to fight anti-social behaviour and crime and make the central business area safer for all, but it was clear more was needed and a security patrol, would help improve the situation.
