The funding for the Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme provides a $4000 subsidy to qualifying businesses.
Hipkins said on Thursday he would be attending a police graduation that would achieve the goal of 1800 new police officers increasing the ratio of police to general population to 1 to 480 compared to 1 to 544 when Labour took office in 2017.
The retail crime spike was “utterly unacceptable”, Hipkins said.
He said there was other work going on in this area which he hoped to be able to announce soon.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen said the scheme was very popular, with already 582 fog cannons installed since February and 1164 applications approved.
“I’ve seen first-hand the difference fog cannons are making. Not only do they help prevent crime, but they also give retailers peace of mind.”
The Government had also expanded a circuit breaker programme targeting recidivist child offenders into Hamilton, Christchurch and Auckland City while working towards a target of 1800 more police officers on the front line.
“Fog cannons can help deter ram raids and burglary and reduce the risk of people being harmed,” Andersen said.
“The dense cloud of fog is highly disorienting and prevents attackers from targeting cash, stock, or workers.
“Small retailers have told me the scheme is working well. For many small retailers, the upfront cost of a fog cannon is beyond their budget.”
Speaking on the increase in demand for fog cannons, Hipkins said he wanted to acknowledge the level of concern.
There was also an unrelenting focus on the causes of this crime.
Hipkins said while the spike in crime was not as high as last year it was still at an “unacceptable level”.
He said those preventative programmes were effective but they would take time to have their full impacts. In the meantime it was important to support affected businesses.
Police advice on fog cannons showed those premises that had them installed were less likely than those without them to be targeted by burglary, Hipkins said.
Ram raids peaked in August last year when 116 were recorded. They declined steadily to 44 in Feburary, which is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic years when figures rarely rose above 20 a month.
The latest figures to April show a small increase to 68 - more than twice a day.
The Retail Crime Prevention Programme was set up last year amid a dramatic post-pandemic spike in ram raids.
The Government also had a fog cannon subsidy, managed through MBIE.
The programmes have assisted hundreds of stores that were a victim of a ram raid or aggravated robbery to purchase items including fog cannons, security sirens, alarms, CCTV systems or system upgrades, bollards or similar security measures, roller doors, and other interventions that include improved lighting/strengthened windows.
The two programmes targeting young offenders included Kotahi te Whakaaro, which combined members from police, Oranga Tamariki, the health and education sectors, Kāinga Ora, the Ministry of Social Development, local non-government agencies and iwi to review cases of those aged between 14-17 caught in the preceding 24 hours.
The other was an early intervention programme, dubbed the “circuit-breaker”, for children aged 10-13 and which operated in a similar way to Kotahi te Whakaaro.
In Budget 2023, the circuit-breaker programme was expanded into Auckland City, Hamilton and Christchurch after being piloted in South Auckland.
By the end of March, 82 per cent of the 147 children referred to Kotahi te Whakaaro had not reoffended. For the circuit-breaker programme, 67 of the 84 children referred had not been re-referred.
Andersen recently told the Herald she regularly had meetings with a variety of retail store owners to discuss their experiences to get direct feedback on how the Government could continue supporting them.
In November last year, the Labour Government announced new measures to combat rising retail crime which included a fog cannon subsidy scheme open to all small shops and dairies in New Zealand.
The announcement came days after the murder of Sandringham shopkeeper Janak Patel.
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time while youth crime “is now much lower than in the past, the risks and harm from ram raids and other retail crime is concerning communities and creating victims”.
Hipkins also faced questions on National withdrawing from a bipartisan accord to increase medium-density housing.
Hipkins said there had been no further conversation with National.
He said they were open to having a conversation with National about any changes needed. He said the compromise framework had a lot of things in it National had suggested, and they had now walked away from it.
National walking away from that was giving “huge uncertainty”, Hipkins said, and they would want to work together to find a bipartisan approach.
Hipkins was also questioned on the inaugural review into the Intelligence and Security Act that recommended the Prime Minister and Ministers - the executive - be prohibited from Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee to ensure it maintains independence.
Hipkins said he didn’t think there was any need for it to become a political football.
He said they would work through all the recommendations.
He was not taking anything off the table and understood concerns about scrutiny and independence.
Ukraine and the CPTPP
Quizzed on Ukraine seeking to join the CPTPP, Hipkins said as a trading nation New Zealand wants more countries to join such agreements, and New Zealand was certainly open and interested in facilitating that conversation.
“We are certainly very supportive.”
Vaping prescription-only?
On making vaping prescription-only, Hipkins said he didn’t think anybody felt vaping settings were where they needed to be.
He said he would not go as far as prescription-only, but was certainly open to making more changes.
Nash review
On a review into Stuart Nash’s communications after he was sacked as a Minister, Hipkins said he understood staff involved had asked for a few more weeks to complete the report.
Super age
Hipkins said as long as the increase in superannuitants was planned for he did not see a need to ever raise the age of retirement.
Bilingual road signs
Hipkins said there was no additional cost and only occurred as they needed to be replaced.
There were more happening now due to cyclone damage.
Hipkins said he had no problem with it and did not believe it created any safety issues, based on overseas experiences.
The response came after National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown said introducing te reo Māori to road signs will make them “more confusing” and they “should all be English”.
“I am not quite sure where they are going with that other than an outright dog whistle,” Hipkins said of the Opposition’s comments, pointing out as Air NZ CEO Christopher Luxon had tried to trademark “kia ora”.
