Aucklanders deserve to feel safe in their own city. Yet some in the CBD are too afraid to even leave their workplace due to anti-social behaviour on their doorstep.
Stats NZ will abandon its office space in Grey’s Avenue at the end of this yearafter numerous staff expressed concerns over an increasing level of “intimidating behaviour” in the surrounding city streets.
“At times it does feel uncomfortable just heading out for sushi at lunch,” one manager told their colleagues in an email seen by the Herald.
Business owners also told the Herald this week that crime is “getting out of hand in the CBD”.
Four young women allegedly attacked staff at Elliott Stables earlier this month, yelling at one restaurateur to “go back to China” after assaulting her.
One business owner in Elliott Stables said a few weeks earlier, staff at one of the eateries were punched after they refused to hand over cigarettes to a rough sleeper.
Residents and business groups have long called for a greater police presence in Auckland’s centre.
That’s not a silver bullet for crime – and more police won’t make offending rates fall overnight.
But greater visibility of police on our central streets will help create a deterrent for theft, violence and anti-social behaviour.
Better yet, the reintroduction of a police station in Auckland’s downtown area would mean residents, workers and regular visitors know where they can seek help when they need it.
“We believe it will help increase the speed of response and, particularly important, is that it acts as a deterrent,” Beck told RNZ earlier this year.
“A lot of people talk about the impact of taking that downtown police station away and we do believe it’s an important step that’s still needed here to really get to the place we want to be.”
Police left their Fort St site in 2013 and then in 2019 moved their Auckland headquarters from Vincent St to College Hill, on the fringe of the CBD.
Top brass need to consider how – and when – they can get back closer to the city centre to give Aucklanders greater comfort that they can go about their day safely.
