The officer in charge of the new Howick Police station says he hopes its presence will help to deter people from breaking the law in the local community.
The new station, in Cook Street, opened in December last year, 10 months after the previous station, in Fencible Drive, was closed when the Auckland Council-owned property it occupied was sold.
Counties Manukau East Police initially planned to have the Howick-based community officers permanently work from its Flat Bush headquarters.
It reversed course after vocal opposition from the community and local National Party MPs Christopher Luxon and Simeon Brown.
Howick Police community services supervisor, sergeant Brett Meale, says since the new station opened he and his team are “already seeing a greater engagement between ourselves and the community”.
“Just in the number of people coming in, whether it’s about found or lost property, minor issues with neighbours, or anti-social behaviour in Picton Street.
“That’s the sort of stuff that now we’re back in town we can be around to deal with on a more consistent basis.
“It’s us being here and the reassurance from people seeing us around more.
“Even though we’re only open two days a week at the public counter, people are still coming in and talking to us. They know we’re here now and it’s been good.”
Meale says while the new station and its officers can’t stop all crime from being committed in Howick, he hopes it will have a positive impact.
“We’d like to think our greater visibility in the area and coming and going from this base and just being visible around the town will hopefully deter anything.
“It’s a bit of prevention and just being available and around as much as we can.
“If anything serious is going on people should call 111 and the response would come from Ormiston [station].
“They [those frontline officers] are out here as well, but if anything happens here locally while we’re working we’re able to attend to those things reasonably quickly as well.”
The matters people contact the station about aren’t always crime-related but he and his team do their best to sort out small issues so they don’t become big ones, Meale says.
“They’re social issues and we become a bit of a fall-back agency because we’re 24-7.
“People seem to report things to us that with a little bit of communication between neighbours might sort things out rather than trying to involve the police.
“They aren’t things that are our job but we try to do it to stop it from becoming bigger than it needs to get and becoming a criminal matter.”
Meale says locals have several ways of reporting crime, including the police’s 105 non-emergency phone number.
“They can make reports without coming to the station but a lot of people like the comfort of coming in and talking to us.
“We go over things and say what we can and can’t do.
“Even though we’re based in Howick and we like to cover Howick, my staff are the community cops for Bucklands Beach, Pakuranga, Botany, and Flat Bush, so we cover a big area.
“Because we’re based in Howick we like to do as much as we can in this community.”
The station is at 76 Cook Street. It’s open 8am-4pm Monday and Thursday and can be contacted by phoning 105.
