Small businesses call for more frontline police

Screen grabs of CCTV footage of robbery and fatal shooting in the Riverton Liquor Shop in Manurewa in 2008. Image / Supplied

South Auckland small business owners are feeling safer after a series of violent attacks in 2008, but some say more frontline police and security measures are needed.

General secretary for the New Zealand Indian Central Association Veer Khar said more police were needed on the street but that small business were feeling more secure.

"We can definitely say there's been a marked improvement," Mr Khar said.

"There's something in the air. A feeling of security, whereas before there was a feeling of insecurity."

Mr Khar said some areas of South Auckland were sparsely policed but more people are willing to come forward and report crime.

He said this was due to faster police response times and a new willingness of small business owners to call the police because they felt their calls will be taken seriously.

When asked what the community would like to see, he gave one answer.

"Numbers. Simple. We want the number of police on the street increased."

Paramjit Dhatt is president of the Business and Retail Association of New Zealand and owns several small businesses in South Auckland.

He said the spate of violent attacks was "very, very scary" but the situation seemed to have improved this year.

"We were thinking of moving out of here," Mr Dhatt said.

"We feel quite comfortable with a reduction in crime. It's getting better and better."

Mr Dhatt said there were more police in south Auckland but he would like to see other initiatives to deter crime.

"We want to ask the government to give more money to town centres to install CCTV cameras," he said.

He has approached the Manukau City Council for money to install CCTV cameras around his businesses, because a presence of cameras reduces crime - especially offences such as bag snatching, he said.

Police Minister Judith Collins said she had put 165 extra front-line police in south Auckland this year and would put 300 in by the end of 2010.

"All I'm hearing from the business community is that they are feeling so much better about the extra police," Ms Collins said.

She said statistics had improved "remarkably" in some areas of South Auckland, and the number of robberies had fallen overall.

Figures from Statistics New Zealand show recorded robberies in Counties-Manukau for June-July 2007/8 fell from 634 to 594 June-July 2008/9.

However, recorded aggravated robberies increased from 295 to 316.

Labour Law and Order spokesman Clayton Cosgrove said Ms Collins tried to take credit for Labour putting more police staff on the ground, and was not doing enough to increase security in south Auckland.

He said the first thing National should do is put $21 million cut from the police funds back into the budget.

"Judith Collins is well-known for getting tough, but there's a gap between the rhetoric and what's being done on the ground," he said.

Ms Collins dismissed this notion, saying Mr Cosgrove's attacks were him "doing what he's always done," and said the police budget for this term was $200 million.

She said the Labour government did not put the numbers into South Auckland when it was in power, neglecting the area.