‘What about us?’ Dairy owners feel ignored
While police continue to work with retailers on crime prevention, the convenience store industry feels forgotten – with industry leaders saying they experience more prevalent, harsher crimes.
It’s been nearly five months since police announced they would work with the retail sector in a bid to reduce in-store violence and aggression.
The establishment of the National Retail Investigation Support Unit was announced by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster in November.
Expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022, the unit is still in ‘‘set-up mode’’. But the industry understands the focus is on retail staff safety, including education on preventing a retail store from being an easy target for offenders.
This could include such advice as keeping lights on, keeping windows clear and ensuring the shop’s layout doesn’t include display stands high than 1.5 metres, to prevent obstructed views of potential theft.
Sunny Kaushal, chairman of the Dairy and Business Owners Group (DBOG), told Stuff the police have approached small business crime with a ‘‘one-sizefits-all’’ model, with advice and steps taken for retailers that don’t cross over to the convenience store market.
Auckland’s dairies are experiencing about 12 serious crimes a week, according to Kaushal. That’s ram raids, weaponised assaults, robberies or sexual abuse – many incidents aren’t even reported.
The industry’s crime rates in 2021 increased 30 per cent on the year prior nationwide.
‘‘If you look at the geography of most dairies, they aren’t all in crowded malls or streets like most retail outlets, they’re on quiet suburban roads or rural parts of the country,’’ said Kaushal.
‘‘Also the timings of such businesses – retailers are open during business hours, dairies open early and stay open until sometimes midnight. This all means that while many retail outlets are experiencing thefts and shoplifting, dairies owners are experiencing ram raids, robberies, also where weapons are used.’’
It’s not to say retailers don’t experience significant aggression and assaults – Retail NZ’s CEO, Greg Harford, said he’s hearing about such incidents daily.
Harford has been told antisocial retail incidents doubled between 2019 and 2020.
‘‘Retailers have been working hard to improve their security and respond to incidents they’re seeing, but there’s a significant variance across the sector in terms of preparedness with dealing with issues,’’ he said.
Two names are stuck in Kaushal’s mind: Arun Kumar and Navtej Singh. Both men died during attacks on their shops. Liquor store owners including Ray Shin have been stabbed.
‘‘Dairy owners know how to keep their stores safe, they’ve got the message. But what does a business owner do when the offender enters a store and starts stabbing?’’ he said.
Kaushal said the industry is calling for clarity on self-defence, subsidised costs for security measures like fog cannons and de-escalation training.
NZ Police were approached for comment on the initiative’s model and specific training for mitigating serious crime.
A spokeswoman said there will be further clarification from the crime unit soon.