Neighbourhood Support good for Te Kūiti

Te Kūiti would greatly benefit from the social linkages provided by Neighbourhood Support as it would help locals get to know neighbours and provide unity to stand up to crime and antisocial behaviour.

That was the messages put forward at a small public meeting held at the Les Munro Centre on Tuesday night – a meeting held in response to recent reports of increased crime and intimidation of locals.

The meeting concluded with an appeal from the organiser, local resident Grace Everitt, for people interested in established Neighbourhood Support in their street, to email their particulars to her on   graceeveritt@hotmail.co.nz

Local police sergeant Craig Lindstrom said in his view, Te Kuīti was a great town with much going for it compared to other places in the Waikato. The current uptick in reports of crime and antisocial behaviour seemed to be cyclic. But Craig said there was no question that establishing Neighbourhood Support would be a positive move here.

Neighbourhood Support’s Waikato district representative Chris Smith and Waipa District Council community safety officer Mandy Merson offered to assist efforts to start up Neighbourhood Support groups street-by-street, if locals wished to do so.

This would involve some of the residents in various streets sharing contact details, meeting one another and establishing relationships networks. When problems such as burglaries and car thefts occurred, they could share information to help police apprehend those responsible.

Social linkages created would also help counteract annoying behaviours, such burnouts late at night, or youngsters riding loud unregistered dirt bikes around neighbourhoods in an intimidating way.

Chris said when Neighbourhood Support was up and running it created a heightened awareness of suspicious activity and could provide a sense of security, with people secure in the knowledge help was available any time, for any reason.

“Every home in the group is protected, whether the family is home or not and community spirit is strengthened, empowering members to act as a group over local concerns,” he said.

Neighbourhood Support also provided a channel for locals to communicate with police and Civil Defence, and it could reduce stress felt by elderly or those who lived alone.

“Members are kept in informed of criminal activity, crime trends and such. There’s education provided on home and personal security and contingency plans can be drawn up (for individual streets) in the event of an emergency.”

Neighbourhood Support provided a vigilant network, protecting people and property from crime and an informal support network for group members. Chris said, however, that all this depended upon people engaging with the concept and putting their names forward to join up.

“And that is a process that will take time to accomplish.”