Bars tighten up over festive season

John Lawrenson

Tis the season to be jolly, and according to Lawrenson Group owner John Lawrenson that also means the added responsibility to step up security and keep Hamilton's hospitality district a safe place to celebrate this Christmas season.

Last week Lawrenson met with members of the Waikato DHB, Hamilton police, City Safe, Hamilton Central Business Association, and the Hospitality Association to discuss new safety initiatives.

"It's really good to be in a collaborative group that are trying to do things well and everyone has a really good attitude. We are talking about having weekly meetings to identify issues from the weekend, things to work on for the following weekend. It's very constructive which is very positive for the city," he said.

"There's been some really good gains in improving the safety and desirability of Hamilton over the last three to four years, but we talked more about continuing to improve. So there will be a focus over the next month with Christmas approaching, you'll see a lot more police in town. They're not there because they think there are going to be problems but more as a preventative measure, so that people feel safe."

Lawrenson said the group are also working together to bring back the Mellow Yellow initiative, where security will be wearing high vis yellow vests, so you can identify them more easily.

"So if you're sitting there, you have an issue, you see two big guys over there in the yellow jackets, whether they're City Safe, Maori Wardens, Team Policing or Lawrenson Group security, you know any of them are going to help you.

"You will also see us using communication between venues much more effectively as well. We have wired up our staff with an app on their smart phones so we can now take pictures of people that are problematic and that will go out to every single person that's on the app in the area.

"So we have doorman, bar managers, even opposition bars, we'll all be able to share the information. It's already proving to be very effective."

Hamilton Police senior sergeant Rupert Friend said there are a couple of groups that are working in town over the Christmas period.

"The Police Support Unit are there every weekend and that's a primary part of our role. We are also utilising another group that are working an overlap of shifts.

"And then leading up to Christmas we also have an additional staffing group we have pulled together to work each weekend going right through until Christmas.

"It's a busy time down there and it's about us having a visible presence to try and prevent any problems occurring. It's well-known that alcohol can lead to all sorts of antisocial behaviour so we are down there trying to make sure that people are enjoying their night out but not causing problems for other people that are there."

Lawrenson said that he and a few senior members of his staff are always in town on Friday and Saturday nights patrolling the bars to ensure things run smoothly.

"When you get to know a lot of the people in town people feel like they can approach us and say, hey I had this issue, if they can't find a doorman. We are always looking out for things as well. There are a lot of cameras operating. We have over a hundred in the Lawrenson Group, easily," he said.

"A safer Hamilton is better for us, if you felt unsafe coming to town on a Saturday night, you wouldn't come to town. So we have a vested interest in making Hamilton an area that has a bar precinct we can be proud of and people feel safe in, and if I don't achieve that then we can't do what we do here. When I first came to Hamilton seven years ago there was big news about a riot in Alexandra Street, and that stuff just isn't happening now. There are still people that we are slowly removing from town but it continues to get better. For the most part we have a pretty good hospitality precinct here."