Auckland Crime: Business owners and residents form panel, call for more police on Auckland streets

A group of Auckland inner city residents and business leaders is urging whoever forms the next government to put more police officers on the streets.

The government and Auckland Council are set to fund safety hubs to discourage crime in the city centre.

The hubs will provide a base for community patrols and Māori wardens, helping police tackle low-level anti-social behaviour.

Three new safety hubs will be opened on Queen Street, High Street and Karangahape Road, in addition to a hub on Queen’s Wharf that opened earlier this year.

One additional hub will be set up from now until the end of the year, with the second established by the end of October, the third by the end of November and the fourth by the end of December.

They are being built through $100,000 of government funding.

Auckland Council will be matching the initiative from funding set aside in the annual budget for safety.

City Advisory Panel independent chair Scott Pritchard said the panel wanted to see more of a police presence in the central city.

“We encourage government, whomever it might be in the near term, to really consider quite strongly, additional police within the city centre.”

Pritchard believed a physical police presence in town would be welcomed by residents.

“These safety hubs go some way, but, I think people would like to see the presence of police.”

Pritchard said it wanted to see more officers on the street in response to the significant lift in the amount of crime in the city centre.