Despair in the PM's backyard as crime goes unchecked

"I've lost faith in the police," sighs the man behind the counter at AA Liquor, a Mt Albert shop struck by shoplifters and vandals four times in the past four months.

"They just say they're too busy."

It's a problem repeated around the country - shopkeepers aggrieved that when it comes to theft, vandalism or other petty crimes, they just can't attract the attention of police.

And not even the Prime Minister's electorate of Mt Albert can claim exemption. Storekeepers, service station managers, and community leaders are exasperated at the low priority given by police to solving petty crime compared to the resources poured into traffic enforcement.

When a man shoplifted two bottles of Alize Cognac, worth about $80 all up, from AA Liquor in May, owner Ajay Agrawal gave police a detailed description of the thief - whom he caught on video - as well as his car licence plate number.

A sergeant at Balmoral police station sent a letter explaining why there would be little official action:

"As a result of the current workload experienced by staff I am in the position of having to review all files presently held by this office. It is unlikely that this matter can be attended to in the near future."

Prime Minister Helen Clark says Labour has taken steps to bolster community policing.

Yet the number of sworn officers devoted to traffic duties again raises questions about whether police have their priorities right.

Back in 2000, officers issued only 137,000 speeding tickets. That number grew to 395,000 in 2004, before dropping back to 364,000 last year.

Figures given to the Herald on Sunday by police show that around one in five frontline cops are assigned to road policing duties. The ratios are similar nationwide.

Reported crime levels nationwide have trended downwards over the past decade. The number of dishonesty crimes - which includes burglary and theft - recorded at shops or supermarkets in the Auckland police district dropped from 5843 in 1996 to 3187 last year. A similar pattern was seen at service stations, although crime at liquor outlets stayed steady.

Despite this, Victoria University criminologist Dr Trevor Bradley says
the past decade has seen the emergence of a widening chasm between the public's often-unrealistic expectations of police and the ability of police to meet those standards.

Now, citizen groups such as Andy Cawston's Guardian Angels or the more established Community Patrols NZ are stepping in.

The first New Zealand chapter of Guardian Angels started walking the beat in Waitakere in January.

The Manukau chapter was added soon after. The volunteers, who Cawston insists aren't vigilantes, patrol suburban streets and shopping districts at night, a deterrent to trouble-makers.

Cawston says the Guardian Angels were set up to supplement the police, not supplant them. "The police do their best... They make a dime go a dollar's stretch," says Cawston.

That respect for the police is shared by Ian Pilbrow of Community Patrols NZ, which has 4500 volunteers throughout the country. He says CPNZ-affiliated groups see themselves not as pseudo-law enforcement but as the "eyes and ears" of the police in the community. "But we will not be used as a political football," he says. "If we found out the government was saying, 'You don't need more police, you've got 4500 community patrol people out there,' we would resign..."

But many retailers feel abandoned by a government that has under invested in law enforcement for too long.

After 30 years in the police, Russell Cole now works at Caltex on semi-industrial Rosebank Rd. Not long ago, the station made its pumps pre-pay, partly because of the high number of customers driving off without paying. Cole says his boss estimates the measure has saved the business $500 a month. Cole is clear that the problem lies with poor resourcing, not with officers. "Years back all crime was investigated but these days they just don't have the people to investigate petty crime."

Just up the road at BP, where the security system cost $25,000, manager Damian Rowe has also felt the pinch of petty crime. His station moved to pre-pay pumps about six months ago.

Rowe says the station had been dealing with up to five drive-offs a day. "We've got a problem and the police don't really want to know about it."

At Perry's Wines, Ales & Spirits on Sandringham Rd, a two-minute walk from Helen Clark's electorate office, owner Mayuri Lachhani says only one of the 10 shoplifting attacks she reported in the past two years was resolved. Lachhani has now grudgingly accepted a quota of crime as part of the territory.

But the shoplifters are still a source of terror, reaching straight over the counter, right past the seated Lachhani, to snatch bottles of spirits. "My hands and legs just shiver," she says.

It's the same back at AA Liquor where Agrawal describes bold-as-brass shoplifters with no fear of repercussions. "They look into your eyes, they look at your face, they grab the bottle and they go."

He's had a button installed beneath the counter that rings in the neighbouring shop, meaning his friend at the takeaway roast outlet can offer support if he's feeling threatened. But things aren't any better over there. Peter Kemp, owner of Real Meals, is just as despairing about petty crime. He lost a $4000, 42-inch plasma TV in a smash-and-grab. He was reasonably satisfied with the police reaction - they turned up the next day and said there wasn't much they could do - but resents that the thin blue line seems to be getting even slimmer.

"I don't personally blame the police. They struggle with their resources and constraints," he says.

"It would just be nice to think they could do something."