View from the Terris
June 2002

Crime and Recent Events in the City

Several people asked me this week "Are we still a Safe City". My answer is that truthfully I don't know, but the answer to the question actually lies with our community. We will decide by our reaction to recent criminal behaviour, whether our city is to continue to be safe or not.

Such events challenge us to ask, among other things, whether we are actually doing enough to combat violence in our own communities. It is worrying to see that the latest statistics on violent crime suggests that ours are higher than they should be, and I will be seeking an early opportunity to discuss these with the local Police. We also need to see whether there are appropriate community responses which we, as a Council, should pursue. As to what we are doing at the moment, you might be interested to know that, in fact, work on community safety initiatives have been underway for some time:

• The city currently helps to sponsor SCAN (Safer Community Action Network) whose job it is to help promote the development of a safer city;
• The Council has funded $100,000 in the current year to implement a "Safe City" Strategy, with the particular purpose of making the CBD a safe area through the use of things such as surveillance cameras and better lighting. The Council is also currently co-ordinating a top level community-wide response, working collaboratively on such a strategy, by involving the local representatives of Police, ACC, WINZ, CYPS, and the District Health Board;
• The Council made available space in the Central City Plaza to provide a downtown Police presence and to provide space for Hutt Valley Health and WINZ;
• A further $100,000 has been allocated in the Draft Annual Plan for the forthcoming financial year, for similar purposes.

The fact that we are living in a more violent society (in this respect, I'm sure that we are entirely typical and not exceptional in comparison with the rest of New Zealand) is cause for us to look at our deeper assumptions, and question whether we are all doing all that we can as individuals to prevent crime.

Some of the suggestions made to me in recent days include:

• Naming a stretch of River Trail for the late Kate Alkema;
• Establishing a Community Safety Corpos of motivated volunteers to patrol areas where safety may be compromised;
• Modifying the riverbank planting so they don't mask what is happening there.

One of the more interesting pieces of mail I have received in the last week has been one from the leaders of the major Churches in the city who have asked for an opportunity to meet and discuss with the Council the ways in which we might help to re-establish in the city, some stronger appreciation of traditional values. This strikes a chord with me because I believe we are a more violent society than we were, say, thirty years ago.

I think that it is certainly incumbent on the Council to work with law and order agencies to prevent violent crime, and I also think that it is important for us to seek ways in co-operation with community organisations, such as the Churches, to develop a stronger emphasis in the community on respect for the individual, love of family, and the recognition of our responsibility to care for one another. A meeting held by the Salvation Army has come down with the excellent notion of a Community Charter, embodying such values and to which we all consciously commit ourselves.

Leadership from the top is essential. MPs threatening to assault opponents with beer bottles should be judged totally unacceptable.

We need to recover the idea which used to be taken for granted but is now sadly slipping away from us, that violence against one of us is violence done to us all, and that to make the city the safe, secure and hospitable place we all want, is going to take the efforts of us all to bring into fruition.

God Bless,
John Terris
Mayor