Residents call for more police in Turangi
| Published date | 28 January 2021 |
| Author | Laurilee McMichael |
This is a reduction from several years ago when, in addition to front line staff, there were also traffic police, a detective, a senior sergeant and two non-sworn staff members. However it is higher than the number of local police staff 18 months ago, which was eight.
Now it comprises a sergeant, five front-line staff, two Youth Aid constables, a community constable and a staff member responsible for managing family harm.
However until recently, the station was two staff short and the positions were only filled in December and mid- January.
Acting Taupō area commander Senior Sergeant Herby Ngawhika and Taupō area crime prevention manager Senior Sergeant Jason Henderson, as well as Sergeant Te Reipa Morunga of Tūrangi Police, were at a meeting with about 50 people at Tūrangi’s Bridge Lodge on Tuesday evening to hear concerns and suggestions.
Some residents said they had had trouble getting police to respond to 111 calls over the past weeks.
One example was a woman who felt unsafe at home alone because of a group of suspicious people on her property and another was a person who twice found a prowler attempting to film or photograph in her bedroom by holding his phone in through an open window.
Resident Mike Fransham said Tūrangi was not a bad place or a lawless community.
“That’s not the case at all, but bottom line is: if there’s a threat, particularly to a person, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a response if you think that it’s important enough to call 111.”
New centralised contact centres mean that non-urgent calls to the local police station now go through to Bay of Plenty police headquarters and the Tūrangi Police Station’s doors are often locked because staff are out on jobs or there is nobody to attend to the front counter.
A town centre retailer said rules were not being enforced, with cyclists and even motorcycles in the town centre, dogs off leads, litter, swearing and cursing, and groups of people making others feel intimidated.
Omori-Kuratau residents were also frustrated by some of the behaviours in their lakeshore settlement over New Year’s, describing groups of drunk teenagers roaming the streets, smashing bottles, vandalising public facilities and throwing bottles into the Kuratau river and lake where families swam.
Resident Bronwyn Hunt said that while she wanted to...
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