For the last five years the Cooks Beach community has talked about increasing security (file image). Photo: 123rf
Cooks Beach residents in the Coromandel have launched a fund-raising campaign to install security cameras.
The holiday destination is the latest isolated community on the peninsula to identify a growing need for enhanced security.
"Lately, we had a spate of burglaries in the Cooks Beach area. One chap about four weeks ago actually had his boat stolen from his front yard," said chair of the Mercury Bay South residents and ratepayer's association Paul Hopkins.
For the last five years the community had talked about increasing security. But this year the association surveyed residents and found 80 percent support for CCTV cameras along the roads in and out of the village.
"Basically, we have these bouts of unsavoury people coming in and wanting to steal other people's gear, it doesn't happen all the time, but we thought it would be a good idea to try and catch some of the perpetrators," Hopkins said.
However, Hopkins said the council did not seem keen to contribute money to the project.
"We would have liked to have had the council come across and helped us with funds etc, and I suppose at the end of the day we could have put an application in... how successful we would have been I don't know."
He said engaging with the council funding process would have taken some time so, instead, the community had pushed ahead through a Givealittle page.
"Certainly, those crimes helped boost the coffers, so the local ratepayers are certainly in favour of [the cameras], that's for sure," Hopkins said.
Pauanui, also on the Coromandel, has had security cameras for many years but fund-raised two years ago to upgrade one which had been damaged.
Local Neighbourhood Support group chairperson Claire Steer said the community response was overwhelming.
"We put the call out to the community, and we had huge financial support because the community value [CCTV cameras] so much," she said.
The community had to fund the camera infrastructure, but Steer said the council encouraged their efforts.
"They do support us with assisting with the costs of insurance and internet and things like that. So, the council value that resource as well, even though they haven't contributed to the purchase, they do help to make sure we can maintain and use it."
And they have used it, with good results, like in September when a series of cars were broken into overnight.
Steer looked at the CCTV camera footage to see if she could find any evidence.
"I saw a vehicle which matched the description that the neighbours had seen, and I thought 'oh geez, this is very very interesting'. Then I watched the vehicle do a U-turn and come back into town and discovered it had a different number plate on the front then what it had on the back."
Steer gave this information to the police who were able to tie that vehicle to other crimes in Tauranga.
Waikato East Area Commander Inspector Mike Henwood said it was great when communities helped take responsibility for safety in their neighbourhoods.
"The community stepping up and banding together and saying 'Let's do something proactive' to give the police another tool," he said.
This sent the message that the community was not an easy target and that people were going to look out for each other.
He said in communities like Cooks Beach, which are holiday destinations for many, public-place cameras could be used alongside private home security cameras.
"It is certainly common for someone in another part of the country, for their phone to let them know someone is on their property and for them to call 111 and let local police know."
The community cameras can then help police see where offenders might have gone and help identify related vehicles.
Cooks Beach had raised about $18,000 of the $25,000 needed for the security cameras and it was hoped they would be installed next year.
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