Rotorua area commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika. Photo / Laura Smith
Rotorua area commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika. Photo / Laura Smith
Police and the council have set a goal to halve violent crime and antisocial behaviour in Rotorua’s CBD by 2026.
It comes as Rotorua’s top cop suggests people have moved from emergency housing motels to the city’s backpackers and hostels — where he says demand for police services is rising.
The target and comments were shared by police area commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika at a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting on Wednesday.
Inner-city businesses had voiced concern in recent months about safety, and Rotorua has also been hit by a spate of youth crime and ram raids.
In a response to Local Democracy Reporting after the meeting, Ngawhika said because the proposal was at the draft stage, many details were under consultation.
He said it was envisaged the initiative would address issues such as antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, graffiti, theft from cars and violent offending.
A request for police crime data relating to violence and antisocial behaviour in the CBD was referred to the Official Information Act process, which can take up to 20 working days.
The crime map on the police data website, however, shows there were 1254 reported victims between April 2022 and March 2023 in the Kuirau area, which included most of the CBD. Of these, 276 were, broadly, violent types of crime.
The next step for the safety plan was a forum with elected members to discuss the specifics before the community would have a say. Public consultation was expected to be in late June or early July.
During the meeting, councillor Conan O’Brien asked what work had been done to identify how much crime was caused by emergency housing residents in Fenton St, and said he wanted an in-depth study conducted.
“Merely looking at how many incidents or occurrences take place in Fenton St or in the wider Glenholme area doesn’t really, in my opinion, cover the concerns many of those people in those areas have because they look at that just shifting elsewhere.”
Ngawhika said he was not sure of any work to that detail. However, he said demand for police services from October 2022 to March 2023 in Fenton St compared with the year before showed a “significant reduction”.
“Where it has gone up, is in our backpackers and hostels ... we know the number of emergency motels on Fenton St have reduced but the people from there, this is the assumption, have gone into backpackers and gone into hostels.”
He said partner agencies had informed him there were “a lot of social issues that come with them”, including mental health, alcohol and drugs.
“This is no secret, we know this.”
He said he could not say whether the problem had simply shifted.
Local Democracy Reporting put Ngawhika’s comments to the Ministry of Social Development.
Rotorua Lakes Council community wellbeing deputy chief executive Anaru Pewhairangi. Photo / Laura Smith
Regional commissioner Mike Bryant said in a statement its focus remained on reducing the use of motels as emergency housing and ensuring people received support to find a suitable home.
He said it was meeting the intent of the Rotorua Housing Accord with motels in use reducing from 35 in September, to 14 by April.
“There has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes supporting individuals and whānau to move out of emergency housing by securing private rentals, transitional housing, contracted emergency housing, or public housing.”
He said the ministry did not refer people to boarding houses or hostels, but provided options and advice and assessed eligibility for financial assistance.
“We will encourage clients to look at independent housing options, where available this will include a referral to Transitional Housing Providers, alongside local rental agencies.”
He said if someone was interested in a boarding house or hostel, staff generally encouraged them to view the premises to see if it was suitable.
“The final decision remains with the person.”
The ministry was also asked about how many people previously in emergency housing motels had moved into backpackers and hostels in Rotorua in the past year, and how many clients were living in that type of accommodation now, and the average length of stay.
It said the information would need to be collated from individual client files, and referred Local Democracy Reporting to the Official Information Act process.
Council community wellbeing deputy chief executive Anaru Pewhairangi — a former Rotorua police area commander — joined Ngawhika to give the update in the meeting.
Pewhairangi said there was a direct link between the community safety work and the Rotorua Housing Accord.
“Working alongside police becomes really important for us.”
Pewhairangi said the police were the lead agency for the plan, but the council was able to help with resourcing.
Examples included street CCTV that could help police catch offenders after crimes were committed, as well as the presence of Safe City guardians.
He said community and retailers’ feedback was that they wanted to see uniformed police staff in the CBD.
Ngawhika said police were also talking to retailers to understand measures they used to keep themselves and their premises safe.
“It’s working with them so they are also taking some accountability around what they can do, but offering suggestions.”
A community constable role had been reinstated in February, with a second to follow.
Ngawhika said feedback from the first constable was that a second was needed to ensure police visibility.
He told Local Democracy Reporting after the meeting the original community constable had been redeployed to meet operational demand, but it had always been its intention to re-establish the police-funded role.
Another priority of the plan was to provide regular reporting on crime reduction. Ngawhika said the purpose would be to keep its partners informed of the progress and outcomes of the initiative.
“It’s likely that public reporting will flow out of that.”
–Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air
