Federated Farmers are calling on the Government to deploy the army to rural flood-hit communities to deter crime.
It comes amid rising reports of a post-cyclone crime spike on the East Coast - although police reject those claims.
Federated Farmers chief executive Terry Copeland told Breakfast this morning: "We've got vulnerable and exhausted people who are seeing cars driving up driveways or entering onto farms that aren't your standard visitor, it's not the ute that's coming in with your farm consultant.
"It's times of the day where people are entering in where they shouldn't be - and look, I can't tell you who's to blame here, whether it's an emergency tourist who likes to see what disasters look like or someone coming in to loot."
Copeland said he was hearing this directly from people on the ground in the Hawke's Bay.
"And not always are police being called in these situations, because by the time the police have been notified, people are long gone.
"These are areas that are away from urban centres - and that's why we're saying the army here would be a good deterrent, to stop people from going into isolated areas but also just give confidence to rural communities that they're being looked after."
It comes as an extra 145 police staff have been deployed to the regions worst-affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
"This is not at all about disrespecting the police," Copeland stressed, adding they were doing a "fantastic job" - but they didn't have the resources to cover widespread rural communities, he said.
'The fear is real' - PM
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he understood that the "fear is real, the anxiety is real". (Source: Breakfast)
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins responded to Copeland's call on Breakfast this morning.
"Look, I understand that the fear is real, the anxiety is real, the traumatic situation that people are finding themselves in is real, and so that means that things that in normal times would create anxiety... becomes even more so," he said.
"The police are absolutely focused on getting the extra resource into the areas where it's needed.
"This is a topic of conversation that we're having with the police on a daily basis."
Hipkins emphasised the people being arrested in flood-stricken areas will "face the full weight of the law" - and when asked if consideration was being given to deploying the army for crime deterrence, he said "the threshold for that's a very, very high one".
"It's a decision that's not instigated by politicians, it's instigated by the Commissioner of Police," he added.
"The Commissioner has indicated to me that he's confident that he can put extra police resources in, bearing in mind that any military personnel, the rules around what they can and can't do are different, their training is different.
"Putting extra police into the region, which is what the Commissioner's been doing, is absolutely the first, best option."
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