Tinnies in the pantry
Westside Stories examines the decline of a small New Zealand town into unemployment and social dysfunction and those working to reclaim the proud Huntly that they once knew.
Its pungent aroma oozes out of the 31 tinnies stashed next to the NutriGrain in the family’s kitchen pantry. Through the laundry door at the end of the kitchen there are children’s clothes piled on the washing machine. Above them is a manhole and a police officer climbs through it.
Stuffed in the eaves are another three ounces of zip-locked marijuana and $2000 cash. It’s just after 7am, midweek, and as the rest of the country heads to work police search this home of six on one of Huntly west’s most deprived streets.
The officer working in the kitchen lays each ounce bag out on the bench next to a tub of protein powder.
His blue-gloved hands then carefully count up the silver parcels – 18, 19, 20 – putting them into a cardboard box labelled ‘‘evidence’’.
He points to an air rifle on the kitchen floor next to a child’s overturned jandal – it was found in the hallway cupboard, he tells his supervisor.
Rewind an hour or so and it’s dark as the armed offenders squad pull up outside their two target homes on Semple St. Suspicion of firearms and drugs led them here. In a moment, the search is on.
They go from room to room and clear both homes.
By now everyone on the street knows the law is in their midst.
Neighbours perch on fences, wrap their dressing gowns tight and watch closely as officers do their job in the adjacent front yard.
A constable rifles through the boot of a four-wheel-drive, searching, and pulling out items. Another emerges dusty after crawling beneath the house.
Through the front door of the weatherboard and tile home is a woman folding up bedclothes in the lounge.
‘‘Want to clean the room for me?’’ she asks. A man sits on the front steps drawing on a cigarette as he fires off answers to an officer’s questions.
Outside, uniformed primary school children are off to school.
‘‘At two of the addresses we had young children,’’ the town’s new area commander Inspector Andrew Mortimore says.
‘‘We don’t want to expose young children to that situation but we have to take a course of action and use a tactical option that we believe is necessary to protect the staff and the community.
‘‘These addresses are right in the middle of an area of concern for us and, unfortunately, over represented in terms of calls for service.’’
Inside one house police find 31 tinnies ready for sale; three ounces of cannabis head; $2000 cash; a stolen motorcycle linked to a burglary in Huntly two weeks ago, guns and other drug paraphernalia.
Next door a man is arrested after police find a small amount of methamphetamine and utensils used to smoke it.
He’s already on bail from a previous raid.
Crackdown on crime
Dawn raids are no new sight on Huntly’s west side – but perhaps a more frequent one in recent months as police target the area.
Spates of disorder, aggravated robberies and large-scale street fights have prompted a specialised police operation targeting drug offending and youth crime.
Raids in December saw six people arrested and netted another 10 ounces of cannabis, methamphetamine and a range of guns. Police in town are making themselves known.
‘‘We’re trying to take back a level of control and get the community to support us and feel safe to contact us,’’ Mortimore says.
But enforcing the law in Huntly is no easy task. This once thriving town has taken some hits over the years. Industries that employed hundreds have shut up shop, leaving many heading abroad or travelling to Hamilton or South Auckland for work.
Census data reveals Huntly east has a deprivation index score of 9 out of 10, while the west is as deprived as New Zealand communities get in terms of income, education, housing, health and crime. Residents in the east earn an average of $22,800. In the west, average income is $19,200.
‘‘I feel there has been a number of changes in terms of employment opportunities with the mines closing down. There is opportunities and further growth within this community in years to come.’’
Most of the trouble brews in a cluster of three or four streets on Huntly’s west side, Mortimore says – an area overrepresented when it comes to police demand.
‘‘Huntly west is a bigger area of concern in terms of the activity that takes place, and where the people responsible for what’s occurring reside.’’
Gaining trust in the uniform on this side of town is tough, he says.
‘‘I think there are pockets in Huntly west that do respect police. I don’t think police are fully respected in Huntly west.
‘‘It’s sad but we recognise it’s through what they have been exposed to, what they’ve seen, and what they have done.’’
Running with the pack
According to police a core group of youths are behind the volume of crime and disorder in Huntly.
They’ve typically grown up in the town and are aged from 12 to 18.
‘‘There are some older ones, in their early 20s, 30s, who have influenced them, but predominantly those we are dealing with are 12 to 18 group.’’
Some flee police in vehicles, or ride motorbikes dangerously around Weavers Crossing and the lake, kicking up a stink and putting residents at risk.
Often the groups had a ‘‘pack mentality’’ – intimidating residents and officers themselves, he says.
Last week an officer was knocked to the ground and stomped on by a mob of youngsters.
‘‘When I first started here staff said they would stop a vehicle and 10 or 15 youth would come out from nowhere.
‘‘That made them really concerned about their own safety.’’
Mortimore began his career policing the front lines of Huntly 16 years ago.
Through almost two decades in the force he’s come across familiar Huntly families. While he may have dealt with the parents, now his staff are encountering their children.
‘‘There is a large number of people committing this offending who are connected with wha¯ nau groups that were prevalent many years ago.
‘‘They’ve been brought up around it, they’ve seen it, and continued those ways.’’
In one case before Christmas, the father of a 15-year-old drove his son to a street melee unfolding on Semple St.
He dropped him into the clash of youngsters wielding machetes.
‘‘That father was someone we deal with from time to time but was prevalent (in offending) 15 years ago in this community.’’
While there were positive initiatives taking place, they were often overshadowed by the level of violence and crime.
Officers in Huntly’s neighbourhood policing team were motivated to ‘‘make change’’, Mortimore says.
But police can’t do it alone. Parents and community need to step up.
‘‘Many have parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, who should be pulling them aside and having a chat to them about what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable."
Keeping the heat on
Since launching Operation Talaus in December, police have seen a reduction in disorder offences in Huntly.
Statistics show callouts to anti-social and disorder offending has dropped from an average of 77 a month to 30 in January. A major focus is on identifying and monitoring the key people instigating crime, Mortimore says.
‘‘We have been engaging with the youth and trying to identify the key players doing this offending – both youth, and the adults directing the youth to commit that offending.
‘‘Be that through search warrants, prevention activities, bail checks and engaging with them as much as we can to let them know we’re around and are not going to tolerate their behaviour.
‘‘Putting people before the courts, mopping up people who have warrants to arrest or alerts out on them.’’
Police have put pressure on the courts to advocate for prolific offenders to be remanded in custody or under stricter bail conditions that can be monitored through police checks.
Both Black Power and Mongrel Mob have always had a presence in the town.
Investigations into the supply chain of drugs and how they were being distributed in Huntly are ongoing, he says.
Overall, police are seeing a slow shift in attitudes. Those who would never in the past have phoned 111 were now calling to report suspicious behaviour.
‘‘They’ve seen us in the community, talking to people and have a huge amount of respect for what we do.’’
The next instalment of Westside Stories looks at how a community lives among urban decay and talks to someone working to spruce up one of New Zealand’s poorest streets.