Police say please report all crime

JULIA WADE

Feedback from local police patrolling east-Kaipara’s locked-down communities has been mostly positive.

Wellsford and Mangawhai Sergeant Rainier Coetzee says that overall staff have found that the large majority of the community have been complying with the Alert Level 4 restrictions.

“While occasional breaches have been detected, these have easily been resolved by simply educating the parties involved and reminding them of the rules and guidelines of Level 4,” he says. “We’ve also seen a noticeable decline in breaches detected as lockdown progressed.”

Through the recent Easter weekend, police were stationed at several checkpoints on the main arterial routes including a few roads in Mangawhai, to check on traveller’s purpose for being behind the wheel.

Coetzee says he was present at all the Mangawhai checkpoints and is pleased to say no breaches were detected.

“I appreciate that Mangawhai’s population has swelled somewhat over the lockdown period. However we found that the majority of these people arrived prior to Level 4 coming into force and own their properties in the area.”

Police also maintained a similar presence and activity in the same areas over the Anzac long weekend.

Coetzee says criminal activity has generally dropped in the Mangawhai, Kaiwaka and Wellsford areas through lockdown including reports of violent incidences in local homes.

“We have been fortunate enough not to see an increase in the reported numbers of family harm incidents outside of our normal levels,” he says. “However I want to acknowledge that this doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t occurring, so I still want to encourage people to please seek help if they need it and to call police.”