Police miss chance to nab city arsonist

By PATRICK GOWER and BRIAN RUDMAN

Police were not watching a new $875,000 security camera system in central Auckland during Tuesday night's arson spree.

The Herald has learned that no police officers were assigned to monitor the screens linked to up to 49 cameras when a series of 14 blazes was being set in their proximity.

Police believe the arsonist is still on the loose and say the fiery death of a woman in Aotea Square under one of the cameras the same night was a "tragic and uncanny coincidence".

Up to 40 police and fire safety officers are hunting the arsonist.

The high-tech system, which has zoom- lens-equipped cameras connected by fibre-optic cabling, began working two weeks ago.

It was paid for by the police, the Auckland City Council and the retail organisation Heart of the City.

The Herald understands they have since been unable to agree on how the monitoring of the cameras will be financed.

Police staff are assigned to monitor the cameras only in peak times, such as weekends.

Last night, Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney said the staffing problem meant "the system will only be as good as the people who manage it".

"This was always intended to be the fence at the top of the cliff. We want this system manned 24 hours a day to save the police money as well."

Heart of the City put up $100,000 of the cost of the new security system, which includes access to the council's traffic cameras.

The system's headquarters are in the downtown police station in Fort St and can be manned only by police staff.

The chairwoman of Auckland City Council's law and order committee, Noelene Raffills, was out of the country and unavailable for comment last night.

In the summer of 2000-2001, an earlier surveillance system was not being manned when there were two beatings, one leading to a death, and a rape within the area covered by its cameras.

Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said the staffing of the cameras was decided on "the level of priority".

Week nights were not necessarily times of high crime rates.

Police told the Herald the cameras were being monitored when the woman caught fire but the two officers who put the flames out had found her first.

The officer leading the hunt for the arsonist, Detective Senior Sergeant Jon Moss, said he doubted the woman who died after being burned in Aotea Square had set any of the other fires.

"I believe the circumstances around this woman's death were a tragic and uncanny coincidence with the series of arsons we were investigating."

He said this "strongly suggested" that whoever lit the bulk of the fires was still at large.

No one else is being sought in relation to the woman's death.

Police earlier said she might have been involved after Fire Service investigators found that all the fires could have been set before she died and smouldered for several hours before being discovered.

Mr Moss said police found shopping receipts in the woman's car that showed purchases at a petrol station and a supermarket in Mangere and Manukau at 8.55pm and 9.11pm.

That meant it would be "stretching it" to hold her responsible for any of the three early fires.

He did not say why they did not believe she was linked to the other fires.

Mr Moss said efforts to have the identity of the woman, a 53-year-old from Mangere, officially confirmed had been held up by circumstances beyond the control of the investigators.

* The two police officers who doused the woman's burning body with fire extinguishers as described in yesterday's Herald have been offered counselling.

It is not known if they have taken up the offer.