4 October 2005
Penrose businesses join forces to fight crime
Businesses in Penrose are banding together to try to reduce crime, following a survey which reveals that 40 per cent of
businesses have been broken into in the past year.
Auckland City Council conducted the telephone survey of 101 Penrose businesses earlier this year and is now working with
the community to introduce crime prevention initiatives.
The survey shows that nearly 90 per cent of all businesses in Penrose were either very or slightly concerned about crime
in the area.
Police statistics show that there are approximately 30 break-ins every month in Penrose and 40 per cent of all
businesses surveyed confirmed they’d been broken into.
Safer Auckland City is now working with Penrose businesses to try and reduce crime in the industrial area and a meeting
to discuss plans will be held at 5.30pm on Tuesday 11 October at the Ellerslie War Memorial Hall.
The meeting is for local businesses to form a “Penrose Business Watch” group to discuss introducing a more co-ordinated
system for security.
A similar ‘Business Watch’ group was formed in Rosebank Road in Avondale last year and that resulted in a 50 per cent
decrease in commercial burglaries.
Safer Auckland City spokesperson, Betty MacLaren, says the Business Watch concept can be very successful in reducing
crime.
“This project will see one security firm focus on the Penrose area and monitor the suburb very intensively. That’s
proved a very effective way to reduce crime in other suburbs and we think it will work in Penrose too.
“However, we need a large number of businesses to back this initiative so I’d urge as many business owners and managers
as possible to attend our meeting this Tuesday so we can put this plan into action.”
Ms MacLaren says she’s confident the Penrose Business Watch programme will make a significant dent in the crime rates in
suburb.
Safer Auckland City is a joint partnership between Auckland City Council, the Police, Ngati Whatua and the Ministry of
Justice Crime Prevention Unit.
ENDS