Law and order measures announced by the Government yesterday do little to protect vulnerable retail businesses from violent and frightening crime, the Motor Trade Association (MTA) says.

The Government announced yesterday that posting videos of crime online will become an aggravating factor at sentencing, tougher penalties for young offenders, and a crack down on people using children to offend.

“We support tougher penalties for offenders, but let’s put the victims and targets of crime first,” MTA Chief Executive Lee Marshall says.

“The problem with the steps the Government has announced is they’re all after the fact.

“They’re all measures that come into play after offending has taken place, and another business has become the victim of crime.

“They offer next to no protection or deterrent.”

Instead, Lee says, Government should be addressing the causes of young offending, and helping businesses to protect themselves.

“One simple way is to allow capital expenditure for crime protective or preventative measures to be 100% tax deductible in the year the cost is incurred,” Lee says.

At present, rebates for measures such as bollards and alarms are spread over years, if they can be claimed at all.

Service stations are frequently the victims of ramraids and violent robberies, which traumatise staff and impact on the business’ ability to serve the community.

“A change like this would mean they can protect themselves against the risk of crime,” Lee says.

“The fog cannon subsidy helps some – but not all – service stations get that piece of equipment. But fog cannons are only one part of the protection suite that service stations need. There’s a lot more, and it’s not cheap to install.

Lee says MTA has called for the greater resourcing for police, so the provision for 78 more police prosecutors is welcome.

“But the Government needs to do more to stop crime – not just deal with offenders afterwards.”

You can read more in MTA’s election year call to action, Driving New Zealand Forward, here.

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