22 July 2024
Hotelier hands out earplugs due to frequent troublemakers
Ken Chang’s hotel guests have been called “yellow monkeys” and told to go home.
Boy racers keep them awake at all hours of the night, and Chang has given up on trying to cover all the tags on the building he rents on Dee St.
He’s had groups of young people storm Quest Invercargill on multiple occasions to play in the corridors, and it’s not unusual for him or his manager to be woken up by staff in the early hours of the morning worried about people trying to force their way through the locked front door.
Chang is one of the Invercargill business owners who raised their concerns over youth crime and loitering during a gathering at the Southland Business Chamber last week.
Many said youth crime had been escalating over the past two years, with a particular group of young people now congregating on Esk St almost daily, intimidating passers by.
Invercargill Central manager Kelvin Mooney was unable to attend the meeting, but in comments read out by chamber chief executive Sheree Carey, he said there were fears someone would get hurt.
The mall had hired security guards to keep the troublemakers out, but this only pushed them onto Esk St, he said.
Carey said she’d heard from retailers who had seen children being dropped off in the morning and picked up later in the day.
“Retailers say it’s being used as a babysitting service.”
Business owners felt police had little recourse because the worst offenders were under 18, which in turn gave them a sense of being “untouchable”.
Carey had spoken to Southland area commander Mike Bowman, who had told her police would be meeting with Invercargill Central and Oranga Tamariki to look for solutions, she said.
Businesses Stuff spoke to along Esk St said police were called almost daily to deal with disorderly conduct and that they were often the subject of abuse when they tried to move the young people along.
Invercargill City Council chief executive Michael Day hoped CCTV cameras would be installed across the city by the end of December.
They would be equipped with licence plate recognition and police would be given round-the-clock access to the live feed, Day said.
Bowman said the live streams would be available at the Invercargill Police Station but police would need court-issued authorisations to use any of the footage under strict privacy guidelines.
The police were taking a strategic approach to address disorder from young people and crime in the CBD area, Bowman said.
“This includes providing the public with high police visibility, such as patrolling on foot through public spaces and popular locations across the city centre over the school holidays.”
Police were regularly in contact with stakeholders such as mall management to develop strategies and were working with Oranga Tamariki to address issues related to repeat offenders, he said.
“It is, however, important to note that police have encountered only a very small number of young people engaging in repeated offences.”
In terms of boy racing, Bowman said police were monitoring and targeting anti-social road users.
Extra staff were being deployed to target dangerous driving over the weekend and Bowman encouraged the public to report unsafe driving behaviour.
In the meantime, Chang said he was worried about the impact the behaviour was having on Invercargill’s reputation.
He had double windows on the street-facing side of the building and had to leave earplugs in rooms for his guests.
Many had said they don’t feel safe in the area, Chang said.
“We need to make them feel safe. If they don’t feel safe, tour operators won’t bring groups to the city.”
Number 10 director Jude Crump said a solution to the situation should be focused on building relationships with young people rather than a punitive approach.
The one-stop shop for young people and South Alive had just put on a week of holiday activities with no issues, she said.
“There’s some really positive stuff going on.”
But the reality of the situation was that there weren’t a lot of free spaces for youth to hang out in Invercargill, Crump said.
“During the holidays, it’s about boredom.”
Leaders needed to develop relationships with young people to build their respect, she said.
Source: The Southland Times – 22 July 2024