Kerre Woodham: Crime prevention is just as important as picking up thieves

Remember the Christchurch business owner and the tradies who performed a citizens arrest back in June? They tackled a thief to the ground. I'm going to remove all the 'allegeds' and the 'supposedlys' and the 'before the courts.' They tackled a thief. He had motorbike parts in his pocket that he hadn't paid for. That's a thief. They tackled a thief to the ground after he stole motorcycle parts.  

When they rang the police the police asked if the thief had any weapons and when they said no, the police said look, you're going have to let him go. Understandably, they were disappointed in the response but the police said later that they simply had no spare personnel to attend the robbery at that particular time.  

Now we have another man who tackled his supermarket thief to the ground, a drunk, aggressive, foul mouthed, oik abusing supermarket staff and stealing boxes of booze. Todd Scott took matters into his own hands, literally, by tackling the thief and holding him on the ground while the supermarket store owner or the manager called the police. Next minute the store manager was telling him that the police had advised that he should let the thief go.  

The officers couldn't come to the store and he couldn't make a citizen's arrest. Understandably, he's disappointed. It's happening all the time. Is there anyone who has not been to a supermarket and seen somebody steal whatever it is they wish? And unfortunately, most of the reports I have read, I have heard, and I have witnessed, have not been of desperate families stealing sausages and cheese. It's the booze that they're going for. It's happening every day. And when brave people try and do something about it there aren't the police there to back them up.   

In our editorial meeting this morning, which is a rather grand name for when we sit in and chew the fat about the stories of the day, one of our group was remonstrating that at the same time as thieves are taking what they will from where they wish, we have police going into schools around the country on charm offensives.  

Our team members argument was that police should be out and about arresting buggars, and if they want to do community policing, do it in the community. Principals should be controlling their schools. They shouldn't need the police.  

I don't know about that, Helen and I thought it was a good thing crime prevention is part of policing. And the police simply cannot be everywhere all at once, all the time, whenever they're needed. Mental health and domestic violence callouts, which take up so much of police time, are so time-consuming and yet it's really important.  

Crime prevention surely is just as important as picking up shoplifters. Stopping young people from committing crime because they've built up a relationship with police is surely worth doing, isn't it? I mean the police cannot be everywhere despite the Minister of Police crowing that there's 300 extra police and you know there's never been more police, the streets are heaving with the weight of bobbies marching up and down the streets preventing crime. It's just simply not true.  

There are more people taking advantage of a complete lapse. Crime is not your fault if you happen to pick up a box of booze, it's because you've been oppressed, that kind of BS that's pervaded the community over the last six years. Crime has been excused. Forgiven. It's been explained away. The courts aren't giving any kind of decent sentences when it comes to people who actually do appear before judges. Of course, people are going to take what they want, where they want, and the police can't fix the community on their own.  

I think crime prevention is as important as picking up these abusive, foul mouthed thieves. It would be lovely if the police could be everywhere all at once, all the time, but they can't. There's going to have to be a little bit of self responsibility coming into this community, into this country. And an understanding that just because you might not have as much as the next person, it doesn't mean you have a right to steal. That you should be ashamed of yourself if you're a thief. And we've tried to expunge shame from the community, saying it's a harmful thing. A little bit of shame doesn't hurt anybody. To be branded as a thief in public, I would find that incredibly shameful. I wish more people felt the same way.  

So what should the police principal role be in your mind? Should crime prevention be part of it when crime is so pervasive in our community? Should they be responding to every citizen's arrest as a sign that they are backing up a community who's had a gutsfull of people taking what is not theirs and what do the police themselves want? 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.