Fog Cannons Fire Broadside At NZ Retail Crime
Fog Cannons Fire Broadside At NZ Retail Crime
Fog Cannons Fire Broadside At NZ Retail Crime – New Zealand’s Government has announced a new fog cannon subsidy scheme open to all small shops and dairies (milkbars) in New Zealand who want a safety and security fog cannon installed.
Fog cannons are a system that fills a confined space with a dense fog when activated by a staff, typically leading to a robber vacating the premises, and the announcement comes after Janak Patek was killed during an attempted robbery at an Auckland dairy recently.
“Funding of $NZ4000 will be available for each shop who will be able to have the fog cannon installed through an approved supplier, meaning they can access them directly without an onerous process,” NZ’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, said.
“While youth crime is now much lower than in the past, the risks and harm from ram raids and other retail crime is concerning communities and creating victims,” Prime Minister Ardern said. “Shop owners and workers feel targeted. That’s unacceptable.”
Police Minister Chris Hipkins said this will be the first time the fog cannon and ram raid funds have operated at the same time.
“Despite global supply chain issues, Police has been successful in ordering an extra 455 fog cannons, which are expected to arrive before Christmas,” Hipkins said. “This adds to the 270 fog cannons that are currently in the country and have been allocated to affected shops.
“More challenging will be the time it takes to install them. The 1000 fog cannons that are already installed took 4 years, and despite police doubling the number of local contractors that will do the work to six, it’s expected it will take till the second quarter of next year for the number of installations to start to ramp up.”
The fog cannon fund was set up in 2017 after aggravated robberies of commercial premises had doubled from 2015 – from 599 to 1170. It was expanded in 2018 and 2019, and 1000 fog cannon were installed by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, new funding of $4 million will be made available to local councils to assist with crime prevention measures. This will be made up of $2 million for Auckland Council, $1 million for Hamilton Council and $1 million for the councils in the Bay of Plenty to match on a dollar-for-dollar basis by councils for local crime prevention measures.
“These partnerships are likely to be focused on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) measures in geographic areas where small retailers are commonly targeted, such as street lighting, CCTV cameras and planters,” said Hipkins.
“Conversations have been had already between NZ Police and government officials and Auckland Council, Hamilton Council and Bay of Plenty Council to identify opportunities that can get started soon.
“Police are making progress on the number of stores accessing the fund. More than 100 shops now have installations approved, with 431 security measures allocated and underway. This includes 93 fog cannons, 78 security sirens, 57 alarms, 63 CCTV systems, 43 bollards and 36 roller doors.”
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