The Indian Weekender 2 June 2023

10
LUCY XIA/RNZ
NEW ZEALAND
Small retailers in Auckland
say the rollout of the fog
cannon subsidy to protect
their shops from robbery needs
to be faster, and some want the
eligibility criteria expanded.
A $4,000 subsidy was set
up in 2022 after the death of
Auckland dairy worker Janak
Patel. The government this week
announced an extra $11 million
for the scheme.
Some retailers are fed-up with
delays in getting the devices
installed. Since February, of the
1,664 approved applications
584 had been installed, and the
government said a further 3,350
would be subsidised by the end
of this year.
But some who applied earlier
are still waiting. Sandringham
dairy owner Dayana paid an
application fee more than three
months ago. “I paid $250, still
work is going on, they said June
they’re going to do, still waiting,”
she said.
Dayana’s shop suffered three
aggravated robberies last year,
her husband once held at knifepoint.
She said every day at
work was frightening. “Actually
it’s scary, because day by day
it’s everywhere, there’s robbery
going on, it’s not easy to stand
here,” she said.
Dayana said following the killing
of nearby dairy worker Janak
Patel, she had briefly considered
closing her store. A fog cannon
would help a bit, but she did
not believe the overall security
situation would change.
Meanwhile, about 1,000
approved applicants are still
waiting for their fog canons to
be installed. Dairy and Business
Association Chairperson Sunny
Kaushal said the implementation
of the scheme had been
inefficient.
“That tells you how slow
this programme is progressing,
whereas our small businesses,
they have been facing the
bashing, the ram raids, the
burglaries, the robberies, almost
every day,” he said.
Kaushal added the extended
funding did not change the fact
Friday, 02 June, 2023
that there were significant delays,
or that about 100 applicants
have been declined.
He said he knew shop owners
who had been declined help on
the basis that they had not been
robbed yet. “You know it should
not be the case - one should not
be ram raided first, or robbed
first to get the subsidy,” he said.
However, the government’s
criteria for the subsidy said
there was no requirement for
applicants to have been a victim
of a ram raid or burglary.
In a statement, the Ministry
of Business, Innovation and
Employment business specialist
Glen McCloy said the ministry had
never declined a retailer for Fog
Canon Subsidy Scheme based
Read online www.iwk.co.nz
Fog cannons: Dairy owners unhappy
with delays as extra $11m announced
on the fact they had not been
robbed or ram-raided.
“Retailers are only declined if
they do not meet the eligibility
criteria, as stated on the
website. The Police’s Retail Crime
Prevention Programme (RCPP)
also provides retailers with fog
cannons, but is different from
the Subsidy Scheme. Retailers
may be declined for a fog cannon
if they had applied under the
RCPP and weren’t the victims of a
ram raid or aggravated robbery,”
McCloy said.
More demand
Meanwhile, others are calling
for eligibility to be expanded to
include chain stores. Naresh, who
co-owns seven vape stores, says
they have had about 15 robberies
over the past six months.
He said they had been declined
assistance because currently the
scheme only helped businesses
with fewer than two shops, which
he said did not make sense.
“I don’t see the number of
stores being a criteria, being
helpful, for retailers like us. So
we’re not too big… we’re not
too small, we’re sort of caught
up in the middle, where we feel
helpless,” said Naresh, adding
they had spent about $140,000
to install bollards and security
doors across their seven shops,
but did not have any money left
for fog cannons.
‘No reason’ NZ shouldn’t be safest country in world: National
RNZ
National’s
police
spokesperson says there
is “no reason” why New
Zealand shouldn’t be the safest
country in the world, but “we are
completely heading in the wrong
direction”.
Mark Michell’s comments came
as the government announced a
further $11 million will be spent
on its fog cannon scheme to
protect retail businesses.
Police data shows ram raids are
up 55 per cent nationwide over
the past three months, with 68
in April alone.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins
admitted there had been a “big
spike” in retail crime in recent
years, and accepted more needed
to be done to prevent it.
Mitchell told Morning Report
ram raids were still happening
and fog cannons were simply a
band-aid.
“The real issue is [the
government] have to address the
drivers of crime and the actual
crime that is happening,” he said.
Mitchell added business owners
wanted fog cannons, and a
National government would
continue the rollout.
“Sadly, it does at least give
them a bit more sense of security
having things like fog cannons
and bollards and other counter
methods in place. But we would
be far more focused in putting
all our energies into actually
stopping the crime that was
happening,” he said.
Mitchell emphasised National
would refocus police, get them
back to basics, have them
highly visible in retail areas and
gathering intelligence in their
patch. He said police numbers
were increasing too slowly, and
that police are now “completely
overwhelmed” by demand.
“Often members of the public
“I paid $250, still
work is going on,
they said June
they’re going to
do, still waiting.
Actually it’s scary,
because day by day
it’s everywhere,
there’s robbery
going on, it’s not
easy to stand here.”
- Sandringham dairy
owner
(From left) Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and National's Mark Michell. (RNZ / Samuel Rillstone)
Police data shows ram
raids are up 55 per cent
nationwide over the past
three months, with 68 in
April alone.
are putting their hand up for
help and they just quite simply
don’t have the bandwidth or the
resources to be able to respond,”
he said.
Mitchell told Morning Report
National would commit to a
certain ratio of officers to New
Zealanders, but could not give a
ballpark figure of what that might
be. “What we do know is that it’s
very obvious that the ram raids,
the aggravated robberies, and
this youth and juvenile offending
is not only continuing, it’s
continuing to increase.
“There is no reason why we
shouldn’t be the safest country
in the world. At the moment, we
are completely heading in the
wrong direction,” he said.
Mitchell reconfirmed National
would introduce an “intensive
programme” for offenders ages
15-17 by sending them to
military academies for up to a
year to “get them away from the
gangs and get them making good
decisions in their lives as well”.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told
Morning Report there had been
an escalation of violent crime in
the post-Covid period, and New
Zealand was “not unique” in that
regard.
“I think we do have to accept
that we do need to do more in
that area, we need to tackle it at
both ends,” he said.
“Often members of
the public are putting
their hand up for help
and they [police] just
quite simply don’t have
the bandwidth or the
resources to be able to
respond." - National's
police spokesperson.
Hipkins added supporting
businesses to have preventative
measures, such as fog cannons
and bollards, helped give owners
a “greater sense of safety”,
but accepted the government
needed to look at how the level
of offending could be reduced.
“We did see, in the first rollout
of fog cannons, that those
businesses that had them were
less prone to revictimisation than
the businesses that didn’t.
“So it just helps to reduce
the level of victimisation for
those businesses to have
the fog cannons.
"No, it’s not an ultimate
solution. Reducing the level of
offending is what we have to focus
on,” he said.