We seem to have almost forgotten about city safety
Anecdotal evidence is dangerous but, in this case, scary and, data suggests, supported.
The anecdotes are of teenage wannabe gangsters, some as young as 13, coming to Wellington City each weekend night until 3 or 4am. Talk is of powerful prescription opiate Fentanyl increasingly being found in party drugs, of drink spiking, of vomiting in the street.
Now police data, released under the Official Information Act, shows crime in central Wellington is up compared to 2019 – before the pandemic and the first truly fair year to draw a comparison from – and since a 2021 outcry about central city safety.
Back in early 2021, hundreds of people rallied in Wellington demanding an increase in safety measures and a revamp of the central city, more funding for sexual harm response and prevention groups and a strategy to prevent violence that hospitality businesses would need to sign up to.
By the time the Wellington City Council-led $7.7m Pōneke Promise was launched that year, it had broadened and was about making the city “feel safe, vibrant and welcoming for everyone”.
Police data does show a decrease in reported sexual assault and related offences but, going from 69 to 61, it is small. Total “reported crime victims statistics” for the area of the city most would call downtown jumped from 3567 to 4021. That includes acts causing injury, as well as assault, robbery, unlawful entry and theft. Some of the increase may be more reporting of crime, but it seems fair to say the statistics, with anecdotes, show the Pōneke Promise failed on its first goal.
Vibrancy? Questionable given the number of closing and struggling hospitality and retail businesses. Welcoming for everyone? Possibly, in daylight hours, in the right places. Otherwise, not.
The Pōneke Promise, which seemingly went on a hiatus as the city was focused on pipes and soaring rates, was supposed to be the ambulance somewhere near the edge of the cliff and halfway down.
Its failure has left those at the bottom of the cliff to pick up the pieces. Take 10 is one such, with volunteers on Courtenay Place each Friday and Saturday night keeping people safe. While it gets some Pōneke Promise funding, it is also separate from it – and is, incidentally, very keen for donations.
Volunteer Amanda Richardson was this week looking at returning a Wellington City Council Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian award after council funding ended for an extra Take 10 site. The fight to restore that funding goes on.
Pōneke Promise apparently waking from hibernation is a good, if long-delayed, start. But it is far from enough.
What Wellington City needs is much, much more than a council-led promise. It needs the central government to help – a lot.
If people are homeless, the Government needs to house them. If they say they choose to live on the street, the government usually needs to supply mental health support.
If 13-year-old children would rather be in Courtenay Place at 4am on Saturday (where virtually everywhere open cannot let them in), the Government needs to address why they don’t want to be home. If drugs are being cut, drug checking needs to be freely available.
But we don’t need politicians taking pot shots at their predecessors. And we don’t need programmes that cost millions of dollars, then get promptly forgotten while fixing nothing.
– Tom Hunt is a senior journalist at