Security boss slams Government's funding plan

Robberies for alcohol and cigarettes are on the increase. Photo/file

A Rotorua security company owner says he's struggling to understand why the Government is providing funding for dairies and liquor store owners to better their security.

Watchdog Security Group chief executive officer Brett Wilson has spoken out about the Government's $1.8 million funding boost for robbery prevention at dairies, superettes and small businesses. The funding has been made available aftera spate nationwide of violent aggravated robberies of small businesses.

Wilson, whose company provides residential and commercial security in Rotorua and Tauranga, said making the businesses less of a target was logical, but he struggled to understand why the Government was paying for what should be an operational cost.

"I also see it as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff - actually more of a band aid at the bottom of the cliff."

Brett Wilson, chief executive officer Watchdog Security. Photo/file

He said making premises unattractive or difficult for potential offenders would make the offenders go somewhere else.

"The second part is the key, they move elsewhere. So does the Government then start funding the next group of people who start becoming victims?

"They should not be covering commercial operating costs for businesses and should instead focus on reducing offending by greater resourcing of police and more effective social intervention.

"The Government should be throwing that $1.8 million, and then some, into more police resources and look in greater details at the legislative structure that allows these young offenders to act as they do."

Wilson said there were consequences of owning a business that sold items such as cigarettes and alcohol.

"You pay for the appropriate security measures like any other business would. Banks don't ring the Government asking them to pay for the security measures to prevent robberies; why should dairies?"

Rotorua liquor stores and dairies the Rotorua Daily Post spoke to last week after the funding announcement had mixed views.

Some said the funding would be handy to buy things such as fog dispensers and pepper spray, but others said the Government should focus on legislation changes.

Police Minister Paula Bennett this week said teenagers who would have once rebelled by tagging or fighting were now committing aggravated robberies as part of a new "subculture".

Bennett fronted a parliamentary committee on Tuesday with Police Commissioner Mike Bush, where Labour's Police spokesman Stuart Nash questioned whether a new fund to help dairy owners improve security was an admission of failure.

Some dairy owners have been involved in community protests after a spate of violent aggravated robberies around the country involving offenders wanting cash and tobacco.

She said in the past 12 months there had been an increase in such crime. There was no one reason for the spike, she said, but 44 per cent of offenders were 17 years or younger.

"There is something in the notoriety now of it. Whereas they used to go out and graffiti and kind of beat each other up, it seems to be the thing right now that you walk into a store with a baseball bat," Bennett told the committee.

"Police have been doing a whole lot of prevention work but I make no apologies for actually helping these dairies become target-hardened.

"They needed something on top of this that actually breaks what is becoming the thing to do - the subculture is to go and do these robberies."