He was referring to the death of dairy worker Janek Patel last year and said the Government needed to take stronger action to prevent a similar tragedy.
Patel’s father and brother-in-law travelled to Wellington to attend the presentation of the petitions.
Speaking for the family, Manish Thakkar of the Waikato Retailers Group said Patel’s death had left a void that would never be filled.
“Every day they are in trauma, they are suffering. But they want to pass on the message that it shouldn’t happen to anyone else. The Government should take some strong action instead of giving excuses,” Thakkar said.
National Party police spokesman Mark Mitchell received the petition.
The repeal of the three strikes law and the drive to reduce the prison roster had fuelled a massive increase in violent crime, he said.
“Our retail and shop owners are fatigued, they are over it. They’re busy building cages about themselves, we’ve got shops bristling with fog cannons and bollards outside but the real drivers of crime are going unaddressed,” Mitchell said.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen acknowledged the period since the Covid-19 pandemic had been the toughest time the country had seen for retail crime.
Nearly $35 million was being spent to support security measures for retailers and the Government was committed to resourcing frontline police, Andersen said.
“I’ve met with many of [the] business community and I feel that hurt, I feel that fear. We’ll continue to resource retail owners to be safe and we’ll continue to resource police to bring these offenders to account.”
Anderson said providing retailers with fog cannons was not ideal but they were effective at deterring offenders.
“For now, if that works to keep people safe in their business then I’m pleased to see that rolled out further.”
