The residents of a tiny West Coast town are welcoming the reinstatement of their community constable after a two-year absence marked by a rise in petty crime and speeding.
There's concern over a lack of police presence in the West Coast town of Ross. Photo: Supplied
The police station in Ross, which has a population of about 300 people, had sat empty for nearly two years after an officer left in May 2015 and was never replaced.
Police had considered whether the role should be permanently disestablished, as part of a review into staffing on the West Coast.
But Ross community society chair Charlie McBeath said without a police presence, things went downhill in the town, prompting residents to take a petition to Parliament.
"There was the escalation of petty crime, reported burglaries... [and] increased speeding of traffic through the town... That's always a concern and with increasing tourism numbers [in Ross] there is a definitely the presence required of a police constable."
In September last year the police backtracked on their proposal to cut the job - and in February a new community constable, Jim Marsh, was appointed as the town's new police officer.
Mr McBeath said the police presence had deterred people from speeding through the town and had de-escalated a number of situations that could have become more serious.
"There was an example of a impaired driver [who] lost control of his car and went through a fence and was making all sorts of threatening noises to the property owner... If it hadn't been for the mere presence of the police constable and if we had to wait for a response from further afield it could have quite easily turned a bit ugly."
It was worth the community putting up the fight it did, Mr McBeath said.
Jim Marsh said his new job involved assisting in neighbouring towns, attending car crashes and helping with search and rescue operations, but his main role was preventative policing.
"You always get this kind of small-scale stuff going on in any town and to be immersed in the community it can enable me to just nip that in the bud.
"I've had a few incidents where I've been able to resolve things quite quickly," he said.
Mr Marsh believed he was making a difference in Ross and the community had been welcoming, he said.
"The locals are not shy in coming forward and telling me what things they want to see done and what they think I can improve on, which is great for me."
Last year Local Government New Zealand reported 18 local councils were complaining that proactive community policing was suffering due to a lack of funding.
Since then the government has announced a $503 million policing package that includes increasing police staff and resources - such as having 40 more officers for up to 20 regional and rural police stations.
Waitomo Mayor and the representative for rural councils at Local Government New Zealand, Brian Hanna, said it was great to hear that Ross was reaping the benefits of preventative policing and it was vital more communities did in the future.
"There's nothing like police presence in the community to actually prevent crime," he said.
"[If you're] having to rely on outside help all the time the criminal element soon work that out and of course that leads to more and more of them getting away with crime."
Mr Hanna said with many communities at least 45 minutes away from the nearest police station, it was important there were community constables and police near-by.
"With the nature of crime changing, you know a lot more violent crime, isolation is the issue, when people have to wait a significant level of time, that creates real risk not only to the public but also to the police as well."
Mr Hanna hoped to see some extra police on the beat by the end of this year, as a result of the proposed policing changes.
