Campaign defended

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33776, 24 February 1975, Page 7

Campaign defended

The recent “Speak Up” crime - prevention campaign exceeded the most optimistic expectations of both the police and the organiser, the Lions’ Club of Christchurch.

Replying to a leading article in "The Press” of February 18 about the incidence of crime in Christchurch, the chairman of the project (Mr A. T. Brunt) said that the

article gave the impression that the campaign was a failure. “Nothing could be further from the truth, as the statistics show,” he said.

“A very careful record was kept by the Police Department during the campaign,” Mr Brunt said. “The results show an increase of 23 per cent in the information received, and an 18 per cent increase in the number of arrests, as compared with the corresponding period in 1973.”

The latter figure was rather more than the “handful” referred to in the article and made one wonder what the crime rate would have been without the benefit of the campaign. Referring to the article, Mr Brunt said: “The comments were both timely and pertinent and would be applauded by all responsible citizens. But it appears to give the impression that the campaign was, at best, a moderate success, and indeed, a failure.” It was true that the burglary rate had increased, but there were logical reasons for this. Christchurch was the “most security-minded city in

New Zealand” regarding business premises, and modern appliances had made burglary in the city “a very hazardous occupation indeed.”

“The criminal, therefore, looks for a safer alternative and finds it in suburbia, where a surfeit of empty houses because of working housewives is an open invitation to the housebreaker,” Mr Brunt said. “It is intended that the ‘Speak Up’ campaign be repeated this year with much more emphasis on domestic security, but the high incidence of suburban burglaries will only be contained and lessened when the police have the absolute co-opera-tion of the pubic,” he said.