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A citizens crimewatch group tasked with eradicating graffiti and having a street presence to curb violence is on the cards for South Auckland.
Manukau mayor Len Brown presented the idea of "street guardians" as part of his council's graffiti eradication plan at Manurewa Marae to a group of
400 local residents still coming to terms with the recent fatal stabbings of locals Pihema Cameron and Krishna Naidu.
The initiative, which has yet to get council approval, would see up to 1400 residents throughout South Auckland voluntarily monitoring the streets for taggers and to act as a deterrent for any other anti-social behaviour.
"There are already people out there doing this kind of thing where they clean up tagging as soon as it appears," said Mr Brown. "This is just an opportunity for those people concerned about these issues and with pride in our city not to just sit there but to do something about it."
Mr Brown would not draw comparisons between the proposed street guardians and the beret-wearing Guardian Angels group saying he had "no idea" what the New York community volunteer patrolling organisation was.
But he was confident volunteers would have the "common sense" to report potentially violent incidents rather than confronting them.
"In the event of seeing any incident these people will have very clear instructions as to what to do," said Mr Brown.
Manurewa councillor Daniel Newman agreed with community input into the problem but said unless police response times to entry-level crime improved it "could be difficult for people to share Mr Brown's vision".
Mr Newman said a dairy owner he visited recently called police after he had been robbed but was told to call his security company as they couldn't attend the incident.
"I'm not bagging them, they have a tough, tough job to do but police need to change their priority and focus more on the anti-social behaviour people are reporting," he said. "If they don't respond to the entry-level stuff I don't see us being able to stop the type of offending which leads to more serious crime down the track."
Manurewa Marae committee board member Rangi McLean hoped the idea would be expanded further to work in conjunction with existing groups such as the Maori Wardens.
Other ideas, including a possible uniform for volunteers and greater neighbourhood interaction, were being canvassed.
He said a "wide cross-section" of the community, which included the leaders of the local Black Power and Mongrel Mob chapters, showed they were ready to take action.
"Having the gangs there showed to our community that our brothers share some of their concerns and can come together and work practically if they are given the opportunity to," said Mr McLean. "They certainly supported some of the developments for our young people and supported the street wardens idea."
Another meeting will be held next month before a council decision.
