A piece of work completed by Counties Manukau District Police Intelligence Section has identified that around 70% of repeat victims affected by family violence are of Maori or Pacific Island ethnicity.
New Zealand Police has implemented a new strategy called, ‘Turning of the Tide.’
This will see Police working with Maori in a stronger and more productive way to focus on positive outcomes and sustainable solutions.
We are also working on a project that looks at understanding the issues behind family violence. This is a joint venture between Police, Courts and NGOs, whereby offenders are bailed to attend family violence programmes targeted to resolve family issues and implement sustainable behavioural change.
If you, or a person you know is a victim of domestic violence, please talk to someone.
Counties Manukau Police has Family Violence Teams who work with people to help prevent violent incidents at home. We also work with our partners and other agencies to implement long-term action plans.
These include helping people combat addiction, getting full time work, and providing counselling services.
You can report family violence to the Police on 111 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800-555111.
Many other agencies also offer help and support.
Preventing burglary
Burglary is one of our most common crime types. We are continually coming up with new initiatives and setting up operations that focus solely on burglary.
A recent Counties Manukau Police Research found that that TVs, Computers and Jewellery are items of choice in burglaries.
We put together a weekly burglary assessment that identified priority locations, priority victims and priority offenders, which are the focus of attention for our teams.
We ensure that we have Police teams in the right areas at the right times. We also proactively target second-hand dealers to ensure that they do not deal in stolen property, which is illegal.
Burglary is a crime that can be prevented with our determination and understanding of the problem. Some of these include (a) locking your property when you are out, even for a short-time (b) activating an alarm if installed at home (c) informing neighbours and looking after each other’s property (d) avoiding signs that you are away, for example, ensuring that your grass gets cut and your mail gets taken out of the letterbox (e) getting someone to housesit for you (f) listing all valuables with their serial numbers and uploading them on www.snap.org.nz and (g) using property marking tools to identify your assets better
If you see any strange activity, or know of anyone receiving stolen property, call 111 or 0800-555111.
Car Crime
We also want you to be aware of the risks of car crime. Cars are stolen and items are stolen from vehicles. We use the same methodology to target vehicle crime as burglary – priority locations, offenders and victims.
We understand that certain types of cars are targeted and currently Nissan models are a favourite among offenders. These do change regularly.
We produce a Victims, Offenders, Locations and Trends (VOLT) reports that pinpoint areas of interest that need to be targeted. Our staff are then deployed to those spots.
You can help us stop your vehicle being targeted by removing all valuables from your vehicle, locking your vehicle, ensuring that your vehicle has an alarm, using a steering lock, insuring your vehicle and parking it only in a well-lit area.
John Tims is Superintendent and District Commander of Counties Manukau Police.
