The recent New Brighton Residents Association AGM had two speakers and this post is a summary of the second, from Police Community Liaison Roy Appley.
Appley assured the audience the New Brighton Community is one of the safest in the city. In other words, it does not rate highly on the statistics scale in comparison to other suburbs. Trouble out this way tends to be brought in by visitors.
Overall throughout the region, burglary figures have dropped as houses and new developments become more secure. Car theft or break-ins remains a big problem and some of it comes down to not having valuable items on display.
As to the major challengers to police in the Canterbury district, two stand out:
Gangs and youth crime.
Her says most residents don’t have much of a face-to-face encounter with gangs, but the harm they cause communities is huge. Some of the gangs are linked to returning offenders deported from Australia but with a significant amphetamine problem here, a lot of meth and other illicit drugs are being brought in driven by big money.
Appley says one of the most dangerous drugs is one not illegal to use but is to sell, and that is synthetic cannabis. There have been deaths from the consumption of this substance and part of the reason is you would not really know what was in the ten dollar pouch you obtained.
The move from a predominant prosecution strategy of people caught using drugs to treating it more as a health issue, is a good thing to a degree if there is more support for communities and families to help the process of reducing the consumption and availability.
The second of the current waves of crime facing police is being generated by youth.
Appley says the typical scenario is the word goes out on TikTok inviting others to join a robbery or event and the response is often from those not known to each other.
He says it is expected the level of brazen ram raids will continue in Christchurch, but youth issues are already significant, and what is noticeable is how much earlier in age some offenders are starting on that path.
Appley gave an example of one youthful journey in Christchurch where an 11-year-old left home to live elsewhere, began breaking into cars, and between 13- 16 had five violent offences behind him and carrying a weapon.
Despite interventions including Family Harm and Youth Aid, by 16 was a suspect in a murder.
What was the answer ? Appley says the youth custody centres like Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo are overwhelmed, and incarceration is not necessarily a solution. He believes we must address some of the root causes including, neglect, abuse, trauma, drugs, peer influences, mental health lack of things to do and so on.
In summary he stated not just the police, but the community was responsible for putting their hands up to address youth and gang issues.
On being asked about the future of the New Brighton Police station, he said it is back to full 24-hour operation and while it’s response team can attend incidents anywhere in the city, having it in our area means officers can get to local problems faster.
The final piece of advice is residents should look to what they can do to keep themselves safe.