Ramraid figures smashed
The sleepless nights of waiting to see if his supermarket is going to be the target of a ramraid have eased for Manish Thakkar.
Police figures show ramraids in Waikato have reduced from 137 in 2022 to 82 in 2023, and even fewer to date in 2024.
Thakkar, the owner of Parkwood Supervalue in Gordonton, has been a regular victim of ramraids, burglaries and aggravated robberies over the last few years and has even been held at gunpoint. It left him living in fear of what was going to happen night after night.
However, Thakkar feels the start of 2024 is a lot safer than last year when it comes to ramraids. “We still have shoplifting and aggravated robberies which require more action from the Government. But I don’t have to wake in the night now.”
Police figures as of March 15, show there were two ramraids in Waikato during February and 13 nationally. This is compared to the same time in 2023 when there were seven in the region and 37 nationally.
Thakkar has been a strong advocate of harsher penalties for those committing the crime and felt the preventative measures business owners had taken, like installing bollards, had made offenders re-think.
“They realised the effort of ramraids isn’t worth it. They are getting stuck in the building or can’t even get in.”
He said other business owners were also feeling “a bit more relaxed” about a diminishing prospect of being a ramraid target.
Senior Sergeant Scott McKenzie, Hamilton City youth and community area manager, said the majority of ramraid offenders were youth.
“Their offending is driven by a combination of factors like being exposed to a negative home environment, disengaged from schooling and their communities, the monetary gain from stealing certain goods, and the use of social media.”
Nationally police identify only about half of those responsible for ramraids.
Of the offenders identified in 2023, 89% were prosecuted, and 11% went through non-prosecution pathways – mostly youth referral. “In Waikato, a significant number of offenders that work through alternative resolution processes for all offence types do not reoffend.”
Police work with local partners on community-based programmes such as Fast Track, which focuses on children aged 10 to 13 who are serious and persistent offenders.
McKenzie said there were also programmes to support some 14 to 17-yearolds with the same intent, to deviate youth offenders from an offending pathway.
“It gives them and their whānau support to reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
“We want to turn their lives around and steer them away from offending. Fast Track has been shown to have a high success rate in youth not being referred back again.”
Waikato University’s senior lecturer for the Institute for Security and Crime Sciences, Lisa Tompson, said it appeared ramraids were down across the country, although there were still pockets it was occurring in.
She said crime occurred in rhythms – generally there were peaks and troughs that “resurge every 18 months or so.”
Tompson said police had their own theories. She called it the social contagion effect which happened with a variety of youth offending. “It becomes trendy and a status symbol, then it takes off. It used to be through social networks ... now it’s social media so that social contagion effect happens so much quicker.”
And while ramraids may be reducing, what Tompson doesn’t want to see is offenders shifting to other modes of anti-social behaviour – such as smash and grabs, which can be frightening for shop staff.
Tompson said stopping crime happening was a better long-term strategy than chasing every ramraider.
“Police don’t always catch everyone. It’s much better that we try and prevent these things from happening in the first place.”