Rangiora-Based Patrol To Start Soon

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31865, 18 December 1968, Page 1

Rangiora-Based Patrol To Start Soon

The arrival of three new police cars in Christchurch would allow a radiotelephone patrol car service to begin at Rangiora on Monday, Chief Superintendent G. S. Austing said yesterday. ' “I am convinced that the patrol service, with the police in the car in constant touch, will provide a more effiicient service not only for Rangiora but also for Oxford,” he said. “It will be several weeks before the police station at Oxford is closed. The Rangi-ora-based patrol car, with a uniformed constable driving, will see the Oxford' district in this period, and will be seen by Oxford residents.

“The Rangiora police, comprising a sergeant and four constables, will have the advantage of obtaining the local knowledge of the present Oxford policeman before he is transferred elsewhere."

Mr Austing said he was well aware of the concern expressed by Oxford residents about the transfer of the local policeman. A survey had shown clearly that there was not enough work to justify keeping a policeman at Oxford. The population in the district had increased fewer than 10 in the last five years, and the number of calls made on the policeman was very small. “The national survey being carried out by the police is aimed at employing police officers where they are most needed. Oxford cannot be judged in isolation, but must be part of the over-all picture in the Christchurch police district. “The crime rate in the Oxford district is very small. It has been clearly demonstrated, as in many rural [areas, that when the police

are needed they are needed in a hurry. The radioequipped car, which will be on patrol from 8 a.m. to midnight, means that the police can be directed, and. very important in many cases, redirected, within seconds. “The base police station in Rangiora will be manned from 8 a.m. to midnight daily: and the police can be alerted for an emergency outside those hours through the telephone exchange at Rangiora.

“The difference from Monday will be that men in a car, in constant touch with Rangiora and Christchurch, will be on the way to attend any emergency and can be informed of developments immediately they happen.” Mr Austing said that redistribution of policemen was going on all over New Zealand. Changes in population and increases in building, in commercial enterprises, and in crime meant that policemen had to be moved to where they were most needed. “The moves are not final: , the pattern changes all the

time. If it was found that a sudden influx of population, a new industry, or a rise in the crime rate occurred at Oxford, then, logically, a police station would be required, if more police at Rangiora with more cars did not deal efficiently with the situation. “The national survey being conducted by the New Zealand Police plans ahead as far as 1986. I cannot see the position changing at Oxford in the near future, and the survey backs my opinion,” Mr Austing said. “I believe the Oxford people will get a more efficient police service. I understand the Oxford residents' concern, and sympathise with it to a certain degree. But I think that the next few months will set their fears to rest, and they will come to realise that the police can help them more quickly and more efficiently under the new system,” Mr Austing said The Rangiora patrol car would visit beaches and picnic spots in the area during the coming holidays.