Budget 2023: Bolder steps needed to make small business owners feel safe from crime

The Government says it aims to boost frontline policing and reduce the level of crime committed by children, but an Auckland liquor store manager says more dramatic steps are needed to reassure shaken small businesses.

Joshin Jacob is part of a team running two Auckland bottle shops – Liquor Boy in the central city and Royal Oak Liquor Centre – that have had staff injured after being hit by three ramraids and two violent robberies in the past year.

Among new Budget 2023 spending, the Government says it is allocating $51 million to keep police numbers high, saying it has almost added an extra 1800 frontline officers to the force since coming to power.

That equates to one officer for every 488 New Zealanders under Labour, compared with one for every 544 Kiwis under National in 2017, the Government said.

It is also expanding an early intervention programme for children aged 10-13, which the Government said had been highly successful.

Piloted in South Auckland, the new funding will allow the programme to be extended to Auckland City, Hamilton and Christchurch.

However, Jacob is sceptical, saying there have been incidents across his stores in which staff have had to take themselves to hospital after being attacked by customers because police and ambulance crews failed to arrive promptly.

“They didn’t show up,” he said.

The new Budget measures come as calls have grown louder for bold action to reduce crime.

Police statistics have revealed there were 292 retail crime incidents every day in 2022, up from 140 a day in 2018, with ramraids spiking in the past two years and now being up 500 per cent since 2018.

The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2023 report has also stated the number of victimisations of violent crime has jumped 33 per cent since 2017.

Just yesterday, footage sent to the Herald captured six people viciously attacking a person lying on the ground on a busy inner-city road. Viv Beck, the head of CBD business group Heart of the City, appealed for funds in today’s Budget to help battle crime.

The Dairy and Business Owners’ Group said it is concerned the Government has “given up on the crime emergency” with no initiatives aside from extending a pilot programme.

“Ahead of meeting the Minister of Police in July, we’re concerned she’s gone full King Canute over crime statistics,” Sunny Kaushal, the chair of the Dairy and Business Owners Group said.

“We’re being bashed, robbed, burgled and worse but officially, she says, ‘youth crime is down’. That’s news to us, its news to the public and it will be news to the media.

“It will be news to the insurers who have hiked rates and excesses as a result of crime.”

Kaushal said New Zealanders were given a “crime without punishment Budget”.

“The dangerous message this sends to us, is that we’re on our own and in recent days we’ve seen retailers take matters into their own hands. Whether that’s taking stolen goods off kids the Minister says aren’t offending, or barricading a thief into a store.

“There was also worrying silence about the retail crime fund.

“So, we were hoping for more from Budget 2023, but we got a lot less,” Kaushal said.

The Government said an early intervention programme was making a difference and that youth crime had been falling over the past decade.

“Only 28 per cent of those referred from the fast track, or ‘circuit breaker’, pilot through to the multi-agency teams have been referred again, showing the impact quick support can have,” the Government said.

Under the programme, once a child is identified or picked up by police they are referred to Oranga Tamariki within 24 hours. Within 48 hours an action plan is supposed to be put in place by community groups.

The Government also said it was spending $40m to improve access to legal aid for victims of crime and $27m to reduce harm caused by organised crime groups.

But Jacob said his experience with offenders was that they seemed to have no fear of the consequences.

He claimed police often advised dairy and liquor store workers not to touch those stealing goods, but to instead let them walk away and then call the police.

However, Jacob claimed that, whenever he called police, they often told him they were too busy to attend.

Stores also find it hard to claim losses from crime on insurance.

That’s because, for minor crimes, the goods stolen often amount to less than the $1000 excess payments, and when claims are made it has the result of driving premiums and excess even higher.

Jacob wanted to instead see more radical measures introduced that would make offenders think twice before committing crimes.

In instances where offenders were on welfare benefits, he believed some of the payments should be docked and given to victims as compensation.

For now, he sees little hope of improvement, with one attempted robbery in the Royal Oak store last year appearing to be a case of an older man teaching younger ones how to steal, he said.

“Those committing the crimes have to accept some responsibility.”