Stuart Nash: Progress in crime prevention for businesses

Stuart Nash says 500 small businesses have benefited from government-funded safety measures to reduce the risk of aggravated robberies. Photo / File

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their workplace.

Five hundred small businesses have now benefited from government-funded safety measures designed to reduce the risk of aggravated robberies in dairies, liquor stores and petrol stations.

This week I called into a superette near Porirua just out of Wellington to talk to owners Pryanka and Chandrakant about their safety and security.

They work long hours, and sometimes there is only one of them on duty. But they support their extended family and they are committed to providing a useful service to the local community. They're a humble husband and wife team but nevertheless were really proud to help promote the value of this crime prevention scheme and open their workplace to the media cameras.

Their bright blue dairy in a corner of a suburban shopping centre is now the 500th site where police have installed a fog cannon since we extended support to the scheme last year.

A fog cannon emits a non-toxic cloud of vapour and a high-pitched noise to deter offenders and minimise the risk of violence to workers.

Most of the fog cannons have been installed in businesses in the upper North Island, based on police assessment of the most at-risk sites. Counties Manukau, Waikato and Bay of Plenty districts are at the top of the list, but there have also been around 30 installed in our home region, Eastern District.

The scheme was launched after some terribly violent and shocking robberies of small retail businesses. Often the offenders are after not much more than some cash, a few bottles of booze and some cigarettes. The items are sold to support a habit, and it is common to find that drug addictions are fuelling it.

The fog cannon scheme and other police support such as security audits and safety plans for the businesses have helped provide greater reassurance to owners of at-risk commercial premises.

Fog cannons are a real deterrent to aggravated robberies because they create an effective no-go area for offenders. They are unable to see anything inside the shop and it also allows employees to retreat to a safe place away from the risk of attack.

The first fog cannons were installed in late 2017. There has been a marked reduction in aggravated robberies, financial loss, and injuries to shop workers. Since April 2017 the number of commercial aggravated robberies has fallen by 40 per cent. Serious injuries have fallen by 41 per cent and more than 1100 offenders have been caught.

Fog cannons have been activated by workers in 16 of the businesses and in all cases there were no injuries to staff and minimal property loss for business owners.

Now 500 businesses have fog cannons and a further 33 will be installed during 2019. The programme has cost $2.2 million. I am looking at ways to roll out the scheme to more businesses during 2020 and further details are expected soon.

We expanded support for at-risk business owners after only three took advantage of an earlier fog cannon scheme. The earlier scheme required an upfront contribution of around $2000 and shop owners could not afford to take part. Under the new scheme, business owners pay no more than $250. Fog cannons cost around $4000.

The coalition Government is also focused on other ways to improve community safety and prevent crime. We are training extra police, targeting organised crime such as the gangs behind the methamphetamine trade, and tightening controls on firearms.

This week I also attended the latest graduation of new police recruits. We have now deployed 1685 constables since forming government.

Taking into account the turnover and attrition of serving officers, we have managed to increase the constabulary workforce by just on 10 per cent since the start of the 2017/18 financial year. We will keep investing in police because we are committed to improving the wellbeing of New Zealanders and keeping communities safe.

* Stuart Nash is MP for Napier