Editorial: Working together to fight crime

OPINION: The best solutions to any problem are usually those that come from within, from a community that identifies what needs to be done and works to achieve that end.

Outside observers can sometimes pinpoint an issue with a clarity and objectivity not available to those `on the ground', but any solution is more likely to succeed if it comes from those people more familiar with the problems and if it has the backing of that community.

The battle to clear the thugs from New Plymouth's inner-city streets is a good example of a community solution to a community problem – people working together to identify what's wrong and then how to fix it.

The problem was simple enough: Alcohol-fuelled violence was making our CBD an increasingly unsafe place to be, with young people roaming the streets late at night, many looking for a quick scrap and a cheap thrill at someone else's expense.

Veteran New Plymouth police officer Selwyn Wansbrough said the level of violence and the brutality involved were the worst he had seen in 32 years policing the city streets.

To be fair, it was not a problem unique to the city. Other cities and regional centres were seeing similar explosions of violence on the back of changes to laws governing under-age drinking and a parallel surge in cheap alcoholic drinks aimed at a younger market. But the solutions were going to have to come from this community. And they did.

If the race was started by the Taranaki Daily News and the launch of our Save Our Streets campaign, then the baton was most certainly picked up by others in the community who came up with innovative solutions.

Protest marches highlighted the public's anger at the thuggery but it was always going to take more than a few hundred people thudding down Devon St to keep the malcontents and the idiots out of the CBD.

What has really made a difference, which has been reflected in fewer criminal acts being picked up by the police cameras, is the Mellow Yellow campaign and the greater work done between the drinking spots themselves and the police. Trouble-makers and drunks are now barred and other pubs and the police are informed so that they can have the jump on potentially violent situations.

Police with more information can then train their cameras on those people of interest and dispatch their resources accordingly.

No one is suggesting that we have eliminated inner-city violence. There remains a great deal of work to be done if we are to keep the foot on the thugs' throats. But it is clear that there is progress to be made when we work together and the `stakeholders' have the information and resources they need.

Congratulations to all involved.

- © Fairfax NZ News