Please attribute to Superintendent John Tims acting Assistant Commissioner Districts:
Police across greater Auckland want to reassure our community that we are hearing their concerns regarding aggravated robberies of small businesses.
Since February, Police in the three Auckland Districts have arrested 65 people and placed them before the courts in relation to aggravated robberies of commercial premises that have occurred in the last three months. This includes aggravated robberies at dairies, liquor stores and service stations.
Superintendent John Tims says we know these robberies have been very concerning to our community and we want you to know that we are taking this issue very seriously.
“We have teams in Waitemata, Auckland City and Counties Manukau dealing with aggravated robberies. For example, in Counties Manukau, every aggravated robbery file of a commercial business is sent to the Major Crime Team. Since February they have cleared 48 aggravated robbery files.”
“We know offenders are moving around Auckland and that is why all three policing districts in Auckland are working together on this issue. Our intelligence staff have identified high risk areas and we have increased our visibility in those areas. We reassess everyday where our staff will be deployed,” says Supt. Tims.
As well as holding offenders to account, police have also focused on prevention of these crimes as part of Operation Dukan.
“In the past three weeks, police officers across Auckland have visited over 930 business owners and talked to them about this very issue, and offered them safety audits of their premises. We have also had hundreds of business owners turn up to safety seminars held across the three police districts,” says Supt. Tims.
“We are continuing to work closely with our partners and in particular our Indian communities as we know they have been over represented as victims.”
“However, this is not a problem police can solve alone. We want to ask all of our community to stand up with us against these crimes and to report any suspicious behaviour that they see to their local police station. Even if it is something small, we want to hear about it. You can come directly to police or you contact Crimestoppers anonymously,” says Supt. Tims.
“And finally, if you are a subject to an aggravated robbery, or threat of a robbery then please call police immediately and our staff will prioritise attending these jobs.”
ENDS
Shelley Nahr/NZ Police
Note to editors: These are only provisional statistics and will feed into our official statistics in due course.