Tena koutou katoa Taupō community. We are now almost a week into the state of emergency and level 4 lockdown.
In the volume crime space we anticipated commercial burglaries and holiday home burglaries would increase. Over the past seven days, which takes in to account the period in which we weren't in lockdown, there have been nine reported burglaries. Three of these burglaries have been in the CBD following the shutdown and one has been at a local school during the shutdown.
New Zealand Police have tasked police nationwide to put on extra staff and patrols to ensure that you the community are safe and feel safe. As a response to this directive here in Taupō, we have rostered extra staff over the 24-hour period, seven days a week, with patrolling the CBD, patrolling commercial areas, patrolling residential areas and ensuring that the lockdown rules are complied with.
We continue to make this commitment to the Taupō community that we will do our utmost best to ensure you all feel safe during this lockdown period, your property remains safe and people who are not complying with the lockdown rules the Government have put in place will be reminded of these rules.
It was also anticipated by police that family harm incidences would rise. So far in the Taupō area for the past seven days we have attended 21 family harm incidents. This has not risen as a result of the lockdown and I continue to encourage you all to find ways in which you can get along and become a tight family unit.
I was in lockdown over the weekend because I was not working and I came across an apt post on Facebook: "we are fighting two viruses here, Covid-19 and stupidity", then the catchphrase 'Please Stay At Home' concluded this post.
As I look around the country and even as close as our friends and family in Rotorua, you the Taupō community need to be congratulated for how you have approached this lockdown. Our staff are reporting there are people out and about. However, we are not seeing the numbers of non-compliance as Rotorua are seeing, and also our friends wider out in the rest of Aotearoa. Can I thank you the community of Taupō for listening to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and taking her instructions on board. I acknowledge we are just really early in on this lockdown. However, your commitment and your co-operation is greatly appreciated and I ask that you continue to observe the lockdown rules.
Please do not be offended if our staff stop you and ask some questions around your journey and the reasons that you are out and about. My colleagues are only doing their job to ensure the virus does not spread in our community.
We are in an unknown period and there are a lot of essential workers that come and complete their mahi so that the rest of our community is able to function safely. I cannot stress enough that if this virus is to impact our community, my staff here at the Taupō Police Station run the risk of becoming unwell and they put their families at risk of becoming unwell also. I also need to do a plug for the medical professionals here in our community, one of which is my wife. They are also at the front line of this pandemic and if this was to go viral in our community they also run the risk of becoming unwell and taking the symptoms home with them. To mitigate this from happening we as the Taupō community need to continue to work together and just stay at home. I thank you for playing your part in this lockdown.
If you need guidance or further information around the lockdown or the Covid-19 virus then the Government page www.covid19.govt.nz is the best website to go to for up to date information.
Finally, I encourage you all to limit the time that you spend on social media. Some of the information that is online is incorrect and will only raise the anxiety levels. You can trust formal posts from the New Zealand Government or the New Zealand Police or the Covid-19 posts that are in the media, but what I would say is that any other posts are just hearsay and need to be treated like that.
Until next week please look after each other, aroha and tautoko one another while in lockdown, and most importantly please stay at home.
