Pair of window washers given written warning by police for harassing shoppers

Two window washers have been spoken to by police and issued with written warnings after shoppers at a central city car park reported being harassed by the duo.

It was one of about four complaints made by motorists about window washers' aggressive behaviour at intersections on Sunday and comes after a surge of washers have descended on intersections around Whangarei in recent weeks.

Whangarei Police Senior Sergeant Stephanie Hudson said officers were called to the Countdown car park at the Okara shopping complex about 4.30pm on Sunday after a complaint about people being harassed by the window washers.

A man, aged 33, and a 31-year-old woman, both from Onerahi, were spoken to and investigations revealed they had previously been trespassed from Countdown.

The man allegedly became aggressive and began to abuse police and tried to break away.

He was restrained and charged with resisting police and trespass. The female was charged with trespass.

Neither will make a court appearance as they were issued with a written warning.
Written warnings were introduced as an alternative to prosecution for eligible low-level offences where an offender is aged at least 17 and admits the crime.

Window washing is not illegal but police can act if they believe an offence has been committed.

The intersections on the highways come under the jurisdiction of the NZ Transport Agency.

Other intersections are subject to a Whangarei District Council bylaw and people can be fined $500 if they refuse to move after being asked by police.

NZTA's Auckland Highway manager, Brett Gliddon, said there are no specific rules to prevent window washers on state highways outside of general road rules, and the creation of a bylaw would be necessary within specific areas.

NZTA is investigating whether a bylaw in Whangarei was appropriate.

"We are investigating installing information signs to warn people about the safety issues caused by window washers," Mr Gliddon said.

"The number of complaints has been very small, seven, but we believe from anecdotal feedback from our team that the issue is causing real concern within the Whangarei community which is why we're working on several avenues to ease the situation."