Police closures revealed
List of 23 sites finally disclosed after nationwide investigation by Sunday Star-Times. Armed robbery victim: ‘I feel unsafe knowing there’s a police station here that’s abandoned.’
The police presence will always make anybody who is thinking about doing something stupid think twice about it. John Watson
She still has flashbacks. It has been two months since the woman behind the counter at the Paper Plus store had a gun shoved in her face, but she is still frightened for her life.
Manager Shabana Hakim and her two workers say they are traumatised and no longer feel safe in the St Heliers, Auckland store.
If only, they said, the police had been nearby.
But they’re not, and the shop staff say it took officers more than 20 minutes to reach them after the July 29 attack.
The men were eventually found, after police units including the Eagle helicopter and dog unit tracked them down.
Five doors down from where the workers were allegedly attacked by two men – one brandishing a gun, another a meat cleaver – the community police base has officially shut down for the time being.
Earlier this month, police announced the Waikanae community base would close permanently. Sources say at least two major bases, in the Auckland suburbs of Ellerslie and Panmure, may follow suit.
Police initially refused to reveal which community bases and kiosks had been temporarily closed; a spokeswoman said ‘‘there is no list to provide’’.
However, after a week of investigations by Sunday Star-Times journalists around New Zealand, police finally agreed to release their list. It reveals the St Heliers base is one of 23 bases, stations and kiosks temporarily closed to the public after an attack on an Auckland police volunteer in April. The bases are in Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson and Arrowtown.
There have been concerns that the temporary closures mask plans to shut many of the stations permanently. In Waikanae, former police officer John Watson said front-counter safety concerns appeared a convenient excuse to close community police bases. ‘‘To me it is ridiculous. Health and safety – so every other shop here will be shut down. The police presence will always make anybody who is thinking about doing something stupid think twice about it.’’
Acting deputy commissioner Allan Boreham said it would be up to local commanders to decide whether to upgrade safety to allow bases to reopen fully, with volunteers.
Meanwhile, some victims of crime feel they are now at greater risk.
At Paper Plus in St Heliers, Hakim said she and her employees were still shaken by the robbery. ‘‘It would be better if the station was open all the time. We are all still shaken by what happened and still feel a bit unsafe,’’ she said. ‘‘It was frightening . . . I’ve seen police patrol up and down the street which makes it feel a bit better. But they should be open all the time.’’
One of her staff said she now looked twice at anyone who entered the store; another never leaves the store alone.
‘‘I feel unsafe knowing there’s a police station here that’s abandoned. I thought there were police looking after us,’’ said one of the young women. ‘‘Because of what I experienced here, it could easily happen again. But people could be more scared knowing there’s an open police station four doors away from us. It would give us a sense of security.’’
Police are also reviewing the future of at least another 105 small stations, amid safety concerns. Some are operating at reduced hours, but the police could not say how many, or which ones.
Some of those stations will be reviewed and upgraded over the next 12 to 36 months. Hamilton station is the first to trial a higher, deeper, safer front counter design.
Still more police stations appear to be nominally open, but functionally closed. Greytown has been ‘‘effectively closed’’ to the public since a 2014 restructure, district commander Donna Howard confirmed.
Ngaruawahia station was supposed to be open from 8am-4pm on weekdays, after a merger with Huntly, but a police phone operator admitted there was hardly ever anyone there.
Further south, in Arrowtown, a spokesman said the police station would be closed for the foreseeable future, but the community constable would still call in ‘‘when required’’.
‘‘Just because a police premises may be temporarily closed, does not mean people are any less safe. Our police staff are highly mobile and are still very much available to the Arrowtown community,’’ the spokesman said.
Members of the public could still contact police through other channels.
Boreham said the police remained committed to stations and expected to retain about 350 sites. Even if stations were not open to the public, they were still used by police.
However, police were investing in mobile technology to allow officers to spend more time on the road rather than having to report back to base, he said.
‘‘In terms of general policing, we’ve never delivered as much service as we currently deliver.’’
Police Association president Greg O’Connor said policing had come full circle: when he started 40 years ago everything was centralised. This was replaced by a community policing model and now everything was being recentralised.
Anyone complaining of an early morning prowler would rather see a police officer at the time than at the local station, he said.