Wannabe on Facebook? Easy!

Getting on Facebook is easy in Kaikohe. All you have to do is drive off from a service station without paying, although many other forms of crime will do it.

The Kaikohe Community Facebook page was the brain child of local businessman Tony Taylor, who decided in July last year that he had had a "total gutsful of tagging, vandalism and disrespect". And it's become so successful that some people are returning to the scene of their crime to pay up rather than risking infamy.

Mr Taylor said last week that the success of the page was proof that the community could make a difference. And the police agreed.

Area prevention manager Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan said the good work being done by the Facebook page, and the support of the community, had led to a reduction in the number of reported thefts, particularly petrol drive-offs. It had proved to be such a successful approach to fighting crime that it was now the topic of national discussion within the police.

A number of people had returned to one local service station, having forgotten or chosen not to pay for petrol, after hearing about the page and deciding they didn't want to appear on it.

"This is a great initiative," Senior Sergeant McLellan said.

"It's been a huge success. We're resolving crimes more quickly, deterring crime, and getting good support from the community."

With more than 3600 members, just a couple of hundred shy of Kaikohe's population, the page's successes had included identifying the youths who robbed a 70-year-old woman of her handbag, catching the teenagers suspected of the armed robbery of a liquor store, naming taggers, finding lost children and reuniting lost pets with their owners.

Members and/or the page administrators post photos and information about crime online, and anyone with information about that crime can then send a message to the administrator, who passes it on to the police, confidentially. Mr Taylor said some people who did not wish to deal with the police were happy to pass information on in that way.