A crime prevention programme has been hailed for keeping victims of serious domestic violence safe from further abuse.
The safe@home initiative is funded by the Government and run by anti-violence agency Shine which has taken the scheme to 300 homes since 2008.
Following a pilot programme in the western suburbs of Auckland city, the initiative now operates throughout south and central Auckland and the North Shore and in Christchurch and Tauranga.
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the programme allows women and children to stay in their own homes.
Their houses are protected in ways such as installing security lights and replacing glass-panelled doors with solid ones. Locks are changed at the houses and broken windows repaired.
