Ana Apatu: Community policing is prevention

Ana Apatu

Our Te Aranga community garden continues to provide food. It's a busy time with families coming to pick vegetables. Some of our veges are picked too early. The bins of food have just started to arrive. This week I spent time with Sergeant Matt King of the Flaxmere West policing team.

He begins with telling me how right from a young age he always wanted to enter the police force. He has been with the force 23 years, having worked in Lower Hutt, Wainuiomata and Wairoa.

I am interested in his day-to-day work with the Flaxmere community and how Flaxmere compares with those communities he has worked in. He describes his role as a member of the Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT). Selected areas within the eastern region receive extra funding and extra staff to prioritise prevention, rather than response and investigation - ambulance at the top of the cliff, not the bottom.

Flaxmere is one of these suburbs that has a dedicated NPT team. Their focus is working with youth. Programmes are aimed at reducing family violence, burglary and include road policing.

One of their programmes, "cactus", Matt describes as being a "boot camp" for 25 Flaxmere College students held over eight weeks. Students are supplied with running shoes and uniforms. When asked about its effectiveness, Matt tells me that the programme is evaluated on: 1. Fitness; 2. Engagement with the school; 3. Feedback from the students' parents.

He tells me this programme provides an opportunity for police to develop positive relationships with young people.

The neighbourhood policing team also runs a holiday programme in partnership with Sport Hawke's Bay, such as hockey and football. Another programme, Youth Potential, involves intermediate boys building leadership skills with positive male role models.

Matt also discusses domestic or family violence situations and how they are managed. Most family violence incidents are followed up to identify contributing factors, such as anger, alcohol and/or financial stress. Referrals are provided to appropriate agencies.

When asked, he feels most referrals to support agencies are attended. For some families, they are taken to a Salvation Army retreat in Raurimu for intensive support.

Matt tells me he has been away from Flaxmere for five years and, in that time, feels that things in Flaxmere are much improved. Fewer callouts, less crime, fewer violent incidents and he believes the suburb has more pride and resiliency.

He does feel that the overall perception of Flaxmere is poor but it's only a small number of people who actually cause trouble.

The stats back this up. Over recent times, there has been a 30 per cent decrease in family violence reported and, overall, fewer repeat calls and reports of family violence.

He also says the social workers in schools (SWIS workers) have also been very helpful for students.

There are fewer burglaries with good neighbourhood support.

We then get on to the subject of road policing and young people. Driver's licences - where to start on this topic. I have listened to many people frustrated with the licensing system. About 50 per cent of our young people fail their driver's licence the first time. Wairoa residents have to drive to Napier/Hastings for their licence because there are no traffic lights in their town, a compulsory part of the licence. The paper work is a burden and the cost a barrier.

Roadside licence checks in Flaxmere have identified many people with the wrong classification - learners or restricted have become resigned to paying (or not paying) these fines.

To remedy this, there are initiatives such as the trust "Got Drive" that works with Flaxmere College students 16 and over as they sit their learner's licence.

As Matt drives me back to the marae, I ask him - if you had a magic wand - what would you like to see happen for Flaxmere. His surprising response was "housing, Ana". Better housing for the families of Flaxmere would make a big difference.

-Ana Apatu is chief executive of the U-Turn Trust, based at Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere