The man behind a new community patrol to help address crime in Whangārei says he wants locals to be able to walk the streets at night without looking over their shoulders.
Whangārei Rangatahi Patrols was formed about four months ago and was among a host of organisations and officials which attended a recent hui in the suburb of Tikipunga over perceived rising crime.
The hui had been organised by Whangārei MP Emily Henderson.
On the agenda were concerns about drugs, youth crime, gangs, broken families and violence, although police said crimes such as burglaries and robberies had fallen.
Tukaha Murray, Whangārei Rangatahi Patrols, told Breakfast he had formed the group after noticing an increase in crime.
A bouncer, he described seeing more fights outside bars and youth hiding weapons up their sleeves.
"I thought to myself 'well, we have to make a change, I have to make a change', and I wanted to make my community feel safe and for us to walk around at night without looking over our shoulders."
Murray told Breakfast the group had found Raumanga and Otangarei, along with Tikipunga, were crime hotspots.
Whangārei's mayor, Sheryl Mai, said people like Murray were treasured for stepping in to see what they could do to prevent the loss of safety in the community.
"It is really unfortunate that we have these incidences where people are being threatened and feeling unsafe," she said.
Also at the hui, she said issues ranged from sexual violence and cyber security, to whether people would get stabbed in the street.
"When it does happen, we need to work together with our community, with police, City Safe, community patrols, Neighbourhood Support — everybody needs to step up because this is a community issue.
"The reason that these kids are thinking that this is a cool thing to do in itself is really wrong and this is not only happening here … I’m sure it’s happening in many communities, so we collectively need to be working together to get to the nub of what those issues are."
SHARE ME