Patrol keeping crime at bay
Though they don’t look like it, each beach is a road, which means road rules apply.
On Horowhenua beaches the maximum speed for vehicles is 30km/h.
Every vehicle, including dune buggies and ATVs, need a valid registration and a warrant of fitness.
ATV riders and motorcyclists also need to wear a helmet.
Foxton Beach Warden and Community Patrol volunteer Anthonie van Rijn said it was often a game of cat and mouse with patrollers and their vehicles easily identifiable.
“Problem people shift when they realise the community patrol is around.”
Foxton Beach also started a community patrol last year in response to the closure of the community police station a few years ago.
“The Foxton Beach Progressive Association surveyed residents’ concerns and found that safety and security were high on their lists of priorities,” said Van Rijn. “There are a lot of big sections here and a lot of lowincome people including over 65s who have no money for sophisticated alarm systems.”
Other concerns the association recorded included speeding on the beach.
While most residents go about their daily lives minding their own business, Van Rijin said when they do report misconduct their information lacks crucial details such as car number plates. “This means complaints go nowhere.”
In August 2018 the national body of the community patrol turned up on Foxton Beach and six people wanted to sign on immediately.
The local team now has 18 patrollers and two 4WD vehicles, a welcome boost for the Beach Wardens who now number five volunteers.
The Beach Wardens will soon become part of the Community Patrol but will still be patrolling the beach independently.
However, Beach Wardens are now too few in number while crime on the beaches is increasing.
He said the work of the Beach Wardens was unstructured, so joining up with Community Patrol will breathe new life into their presence. The two groups are the eyes and ears of the police, passing on information to the police who alone can act on it.
“If good people keep quiet, bad people run riot,” Van Rijin said.
There were burnt-out car wrecks on the beach, people dumped rubbish there and lit fires in the wrong place.
“Some seem to think anything goes.”
He added that the two groups kept a safe distance and were non-confrontational.
“If there are real problems people still need to contact the police.”
Big issues on the beach are speeding and fires.
At beach entrances are plenty of signs spelling out the rules . . . though many seem to feel they can ignore them, as a young man on an unregistered motorbike demonstrated, riding without a helmet and close to children.
Van Rijn presented the young motorcyclist with a list of do’s and don’t’s on the beach and he quickly returned with his bike to the carpark.
You Cars Ltd in Palmerston North (signwriting), a lotteries grant for three years, funding from Te Awahou Lions and money from the Easter Fair Committee are making the combined patrol possible.