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Perceptions of Public Safety in the Auckland CBD

Date Published: 
October 2005
Earlier this year, the Institute of Public Policy at AUT University carried out a customer satisfaction survey for the Auckland City District Police. One of the aims of the survey was to examine perceptions of public safety in the Auckland city?s central business district (CBD). In particular the survey investigated (1) public use of the CBD; (2) people?s perceptions of public safety within the CBD; and (3) whether people?s views on safety within that area had changed over the last five years.
 
In this article, Casey and Crothers firstly review the research which has been undertaken on behalf of Auckland City and which has addressed the issue of public safety in the CBD. They also examine the strategies council has developed which may have a bearing on the issue of CBD safety.
 
The authors then discuss the findings of the Auckland City District Police customer satisfaction survey 2005 which canvassed the usage and perceptions of safety in the Auckland CBD among three discrete population samples:- 820 random householders; 209 senior college students and 117 international tertiary students.
 
Finally, the authors discuss the implications of the survey results for the various joint police/council initiatives to improve CBD safety and make a number of suggestions for actions which might impact positively on future perceptions of safety in the Auckland CBD.

Report of the Hon Sir David Tompkins QC concerning the Counties Manukau Police District

Date Published: 
September 2005

In February 2005 charges of assault laid against Senior Sergeant Solomona were heard in the District Court at Manukau. During the hearing, evidence was given of certain photographs said to have been in the possession of the Senior Sergeant.

As a consequence of these references and evidence given concerning them, the District Court Judge, in his judgment delivered on 2 March 2005, referred to the practice of taking photographs of suspects or offenders of a demeaning kind and recorded his impression from the evidence that this practice maybe widespread, especially in the South Auckland area.
 
Referring to evidence that this was regarded by the police as a joke, he observed that "the culture is as sick as the joke".
 
These observations, and the widespread media publicity they attracted, caused the Commissioner of Police to set up an internal police inquiry that was named Operation Reason. On 4 March 2005, the Hon Sir David Tompkins QC was asked to oversee the inquiry and to report his findings to the Commissioner. This report describes the investigations that were carried out and his findings resulting from them.

The Impact of Enforcement on Intoxication and Alcohol Related Harm

Date Published: 
November 2005

The enforcement of liquor licensing laws by police and regulatory officials is intended to keep drinking environments safe, contribute to the reduction of liquor abuse, prevent excessive consumption of alcohol, and prevent the sale of alcohol to minors.

In Wellington, the enforcement of licensing laws involves regular visits to licensed premises by police and regulatory officials. The present study sought to test the effectiveness of these visits to licensed premises, by using an interrupted time series quasi-experimental approach.
 
Police formed a specialist Liquor Policing Unit (LPU) of six staff to achieve the heightened levels of enforcement. The impact of these interventions was compared to the impact of “normal” enforcement activity during the month preceding the first intervention, the intervening two months between interventions and during the month following the second intervention.
 

Risk Assessment and Intervention for Family Violence - NZS 8006: 2006

Date Published: 
May 2006

The purpose of this document is to provide an appropriate Standard, which establishes the minimum requirements that should be met by individuals and agencies/services involved in working with families living with family violence, child abuse or neglect. It provides a common language for these agencies/services to screen for this behaviour, assess risk relating to these situations, and provide for safety planning interventions.

A family is a place where everyone should be safe, yet violence, abuse and neglect within the family are major problems in New Zealand. In 2005, New Zealand Police recorded over 60,000 offences and non-offence incidents involving family violence, at which over 62,000 children and young people under 17 were present or involved in some capacity.
 
In the face of this challenge, it is vital to support and co-ordinate the efforts of those agencies and services working to help people affected by family violence, abuse and neglect within the family. This Standard aims to provide a consistent set of guidelines for those at the forefront of dealing with the results of family violence, abuse and neglect including teachers, police, medical personnel, midwives, nurses, social workers and others. It is hoped that this will help to enable a coherent response to incidents and symptoms of family violence, abuse and neglect.

Clandestine Drug Laboratory Report - 2006

Date Published: 
July 2007

 

This report provides an overview of information related to the dismantling of clan labs by New Zealand Police during the 2006 calendar year. 
'Official' clan lab recording began in 1996. A single clan lab was dismantled in that year. Since then, clan lab numbers have increased significantly with around 200 labs being located each year since 2003.
 
February 2006 saw the detection of New Zealand's 1000th clan lab. Perhaps indicative of the overall clan lab situation, this lab was located in a vehicle during a routine traffic stop and while most equipment, materials and substances were present it was relatively small and clearly quite mobile.
 
A total of 211 clan labs were dismantled by New Zealand Police in 2006, predominantly aimed at the manufacture of methamphetamine. This represents a 3.43% increase over 2005 and is also the highest number of labs detected in any calendar year.
 

Ethnic Community Perceptions of New Zealand Police

Date Published: 
January 2006

In 2005 the New Zealand Police commissioned this research project to explore the perceptions of police held by members of various ethnic communities and to provide information on the current crime and safety issues that ethnic communities face.

This research project involved exploring the perceptions of eight ethnic communities including Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Somali and Middle Eastern. Data for this qualitative project was collected through face to face interviews and focus group discussions conducted in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.
 
Ethnic community perceptions of New Zealand Police have been analysed through various themes that emerged during data collection, including: contact with police, attitudes towards police staff, perception of police services, language barriers, home country experiences, cultural ideas and knowledge, and the impact of the media.

He Waka Tapu Violence and Abuse Intervention Programme and Caseworker Programme Outcome Evaluation - 2007

Date Published: 
September 2007

He Waka Tapu Trust is a Maori health and social services organisation operating in the region of Ngāi Tahu ki autahi (Christchurch) in the South Island. He Waka Tapu was established to provide a Kaupapa Māori service for Māori men and their whānau experiencing domestic violence. This report is the final evaluation of the two Community Youth Programmes provided by He Waka Tapu Trust i.e. the Violence and Abuse Intervention Programme and the Wraparound Caseworker Programme.

In 2002 He Waka Tapu (HWT) Violence and Abuse Intervention programme and the HWT Wraparound programme, based in Christchurch, were two of 14 community youth programmes selected nationally to reduce youth offending. The programmes collectively received $298,500 over three years. This outcome evaluation considers the effectiveness of the two HWT programmes. 
 

Challenging Perspectives - Police and Māori Attitudes Toward One Another

Date Published: 
April 2000

In 1997 NZ Police and Te Puni Kōkiri commissioned research from Victoria Link on Perceptions of Māori and Police. This research comprised two complimentary but separate components. 

The first, Māori Perceptions of the Police by Pania Te Whaiti and Michel Roguski from He Parekerekere, sought information on Māori attitudes towards the police; and the second, Police Perceptions of Māori by Gabrielle Maxwell and Catherine Smith from the Institute of Criminology, examined police views about their behavior and attitudes toward Māori. 
 
This summary document provides an overview of the two research reports. However, the document is not intended to be a substituted for reading the two reports. This document is necessarily brief and selective in the information it presents, and consequently a full understanding of the issues can only be obtained by reference to the research reports themselves.
 
This document outlines who was involved in the research, how it was done, and the main findings. Section 2 explains the background to the research, and section 3 provides a general introduction to the two studies. This is followed by more detailed discussion of each study in sections 4 and 5. The final section focuses on policy implications of the research.
 

Police Perceptions of the Māori - 1998

Date Published: 
March 1998

New Zealand Police, in collaboration with Te Puni Kokiri, sponsored this research project which aims to examine police how police view their behaviour and attitudes toward Maori, to look at factors associated with different attitudes among police officers and to assess likely responses to proposed changes for building responsiveness to Maori planned as part of Policing 2000.

This report forms one of two specific components of the project ‘Perceptions of Mäori and Police’. The two components have been researched independently of each other. This volume, ‘Police Perceptions of Mäori’, was researched and written by Garbielle Maxwell and Catherine Smith, Institute of Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington. The other volume, ‘Mäori Perceptions of Police’, was researched and written by Pania Te Whaiti and Dr Michael Roguski at the School of Education, Victoria University.

Māori Perceptions of the Police - 1998

Date Published: 
September 1998

New Zealand Police, in collaboration with Te Puni Kokiri, sponsored this research project with the aim of providing information to enable organizational change in the Police. This organizational change would contribute towards an improved perception by Māori of the police.

The research begins by explaining the research methodology and the history of police interaction with Māori. This is followed by the results which are then broken down into four key areas; suspects, victims of crime, Māori youth, and complaints against police. The report moves to discuss “What Works Best” concerning participants’ perceptions of current police relationships with iwi and Mäori communities and how these relationships may be improved. Finally the report concludes with a summary of findings.
 
This report forms one of two specific components of the project ‘Perceptions of Mäori and Police’. The two components have been researched independently of each other. This volume, ‘Mäori Perceptions of the Police’, was researched and written by Pania Te Whaiti and Dr Michael Roguski at the School of Education, Victoria University. The other volume, ‘Police Perceptions of Mäori’, was researched and written by the Institute of Criminology, Victoria University.