Rural police plan retuned

Plans to make rural police stations open 24/7 have been quietly changed, with Dannevirke and Marton police stations’ hours to be extended only on demand.

The former National Government had set a target to have 95 per cent of New Zealanders living within 25 kilometres of a 24-hour police station but now night-time policing will be left to the discretion of local commanders.

Police Minister Stuart Nash said the original plan was never for police bases to be open 24 hours a day, but to have an available police presence, and that presence was often not required in the middle of the night on weekdays.

National police spokesman Chris Bishop disagrees. He said when National was in power, it committed $503 million to a safer communities package. It featured 24/7 rural stations, including one in either Dannevirke or Waipukurau.

‘‘The police minister should come to Dannevirke and Waipukurau and explain to these communities why he made this decision,’’ he said.

Stations in Dannevirke/ Waipukurau and Marton, alongside eight other rural stations, will become ‘‘24/7 demand stations’’, staying open at night when situations or trends call for it.

Nash said some commanders decided they were better to have stations open 24 hours for three nights a week – covering busy Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

He said there was no advantage to having a uniformed officer sitting at a desk at 3am on a Tuesday.

‘‘Response times are what matters and police are putting a lot of effort into that, average times of between seven to 12 minutes for emergency calls.’’

At a recent police graduation, he said there were eight new constables heading to Central District, who would start work on Christmas Eve. As well as an increase in police staff, there had been upgrades to police stations.

Nash said under the last Government, 150 front counters at police stations were closed or forced to operate under restricted hours due to health and safety concerns or problems with public accessibility.

That included 20 stations in Central District but, of those, 15 have been upgraded, which included Whanganui, Feilding, Foxton, Levin, O¯ taki, Palmerston North, Highbury, Pahı¯atua and Dannevirke.