Rotorua defiant on plan to ban criminals

Rotorua's civic leaders yesterday defied criticism that their plan to ban repeat criminals from the city's central business district breaches human rights.

The Rotorua District Council voted 12-1 on Tuesday night in favour of giving police the power to issue trespass notices to criminals with at least five dishonesty convictions.

Civil libertarians and human rights groups say the planned bylaw is "unlawful and unprincipled", but Rotorua Mayor Kevin Winters said the council was determined to see it enforced.

"We are no longer prepared to let a small number of crooks and thugs treat our city as a smorgasbord for crime, where they can stroll at will helping themselves to other people's property," he said.

"Read my lips, your time is up."

Mr Winters said the council's priority was making the city safe and complaints about encroaching on criminals' rights were irrelevant.

"Boo hoo, how sad," he said. "What about the 99 per cent of people who legitimately come into our downtown area for shopping, dining, socialising or carrying out business. What about their rights?"

The proposal, suggested by the police, has to gain lawyers' approval.

Rotorua police area commander Inspector Bruce Horne said it would target about 10 criminals initially, and a maximum of about 30, but was necessary to cut crime in the CBD.

"We know that about 90 per cent of the crime in the CBD is committed by 10 per cent of the offender population, so we'd be mad not to look at options to see how we can put some restraints on those people."

A third of Rotorua's crime happened in the CBD and the city's popularity as a tourist destination made the statistics worse.

"It means that we have a high number of visitors in the CBD with campervans and vehicles and so forth, that present an opportunity to predatory offenders."

The trespass orders would be issued to people who were convicted of a dishonesty offence in the CBD and were then found to have at least five similar dishonesty convictions in the past five years.

They would not be retrospective and would last three months.

Mr Horne believed the three-month duration would be effective, saying a liquor ban introduced in the CBD had been successful and police now had few problems with breaches.

Similar "antisocial behaviour orders" introduced in Britain in 1999 had been successful.

They covered not only dishonesty crimes, but racial intimidation, graffiti and other public-nuisance offences.

Mr Horne was confident the proposal was legal, saying to breach the Bill of Rights it would have to be arbitrary, unreasonable and unjustifiable.

"It's none of those things," he said.

Te Arawa Maori Trust Board chairman Anaru Rangiheuea, who was also at the press conference, said the plan was "very courageous".

"If we want a safe community, we have to take serious steps."

But the Council for Civil Liberties said the proposal was unlawful because it took away the right to freedom of movement.

"It's unprincipled and will be offensive in terms of the Bill of Rights Act in that it is blocking them from the king's highway, or public places," said chairman Michael Bott.

Human rights lawyer Tony Ellis, who is president of the council, said the move would not survive a court challenge and ignored the legal presumption of innocence.

In Wanganui, Mayor Michael Laws has been leading a campaign to ban the wearing of gang regalia in public.

He said he supported the Rotorua plan, but recommended the council try to get it passed as a local member of Parliament's bill, rather than a bylaw, because in Wanganui's case that was proving difficult.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Gareth McVicar said the idea should be "cloned" throughout the country.

Criteria for issuing trespass orders:

* Person must have been convicted for a dishonesty offence in the CBD.

* Person must have at least five previous convictions for similar dishonesty offences in the past five years.

* Dishonesty offences include shoplifting, car theft, burglary, receiving and fraud.

* Trespass orders are limited to three months.

* Banned people will be able to enter CBD for appointments with doctors, lawyers, Work & Income, the courts, etc.