Jo Raphael: Protection of retail workers is paramount

Looking out from a smashed retail window. Photo / Andrew Warner

OPINION:

It must be hard to wake up, go to work and not know if you’re going to be targeted by criminals or abusive people.

Not knowing if you’ll be physically attacked, verbally abused or threatened with a firearm or some other type of offensive weapon must be stomach-churning.

I’m not talking about police or armed forces, where in that line of work, it could be expected that you’d run into certain types of people who might use violence.

I’m talking about shopkeepers, dairy owners, service station attendants. People whose job it is to serve customers - the public. Small businesses with employees trying to make an honest dollar.

Yesterday we reported the Gull service station on Edmund Rd will be unmanned as of today.

The reason? Crime. The violent kind.

Gull Edmund Rd manager of 34 years David Davies says the store has been robbed twice in the past year.

“We’d stay open if we hadn’t got robbed - we’ve been armed robbed eight times in probably 10 years ... and they’re getting more violent.”

Davies himself has borne the brunt of these violent attacks. He says he was beaten in an armed robbery last year.

“They come in when customers are here ... they come in at any time.”

Matua Dairy owner Davinder Singh told NZME last month the shop had four or five break-ins in a year.

Ōmokoroa Minimart and Takeaways owner Saed Rajput says his store was targeted three times in three months last year, including two “back-to-back” break-ins and then a ram-raid.

Judge John McDonald said at the recent sentencing of a “serial” shoplifter who punched a Rotorua supermarket worker in the face and threw a toolkit at a Mitre10 staff member that too often, shopkeepers and workers were violently verbally abused or assaulted by shoplifters who thought it was their right to take whatever they wanted.

Judge McDonald is correct - this kind of crime is on the rise, and it’s terrifying for those who have to face it.

Police district data released by National Party police spokesman Mark Mitchell last month showed the number of reported incidents of retail crime was 33 per cent higher in 2022 than in 2021 in the Bay of Plenty.

Between 2018 and 2022, there was a 103 per cent increase in incidents in the Bay.

I believe addiction and desperation are strong drivers of violent crime, and some people will say harsher penalties are the answer. Others will say tougher sentences will not solve the problem.

While the systemic social, economic and criminal issues surrounding these violent crimes will not be fixed overnight, the protection of our customer-facing workers - those bearing the brunt of the violence - is paramount.

Retail workers don’t deserve to go to work not knowing if they’ll make it home that evening.

Last November, a funding scheme was announced to support small business owners - $4 million will be made available to local councils to assist with crime prevention measures.

It’s made up of $2m for Auckland Council, $1m for Hamilton Council and $1m for the councils in the Bay of Plenty, to match with councils on a dollar-for-dollar basis for local crime prevention measures.

The Government needs to pour more money into this scheme to provide more protection for ordinary Kiwis in the retail front line.