Role of Safe City Guardians gets a refresh

Rotorua CBD. Photo: Daniel Hines/Rotorua Now.

To meet current needs in the CBD, the role of Rotorua Lakes Council's Safe City Guardians has been refreshed to become more of a ‘one stop shop' ambassadorial role, rather than solely security focused.

The team of three will now work as a roving link between Council, CBD businesses and visitors, to help Council better understand and meet changing community needs, and make it as easy as possible to interact with Council.

The primary focus of the refreshed role will be providing an approachable, flexible and knowledgeable ambassadorial presence in the CBD to assist with the collection and distribution of information about events, safety, parking, inner city news, city maintenance requirements, and surveys.

Rotorua Lakes Council's General Manager Operations, Jocelyn Mikaere, explains a range of factors have influenced the shift.

'We've decided to refresh the role of our Safe City Guardians as we move into the summer months and after seeing a sustained reduction in anti-social activity in the CBD.

"Since the COVID-19 lockdown, Council has seen a 49 per cent reduction in CBD incidents compared to the three months prior. COVID-19 has also changed the environment that we're operating in and we saw this as an opportunity to create a stronger link between Council and CBD businesses and visitors for information-sharing purposes.

"The aim is that our Guardians will become a ‘one stop shop' for all Council and CBD-related information.”

Mikaere says that while the primary focus has shifted, the Guardians will still provide timely and relevant information to partner agencies such as the police to assist with safety in the CBD.

'Important working relationships between our Guardians, the Police and other key partners will be maintained so that any issues that may arise are appropriately addressed by the relevant authority. As always, we retain the flexibility to further review and adapt the role of the Guardians to meet community needs.”

Community Constable O'Keeffe of the Rotorua Police works in partnership with Council's CCTV team and the Guardians, providing advice and assistance as needed. He says the joint approach to inner city safety has been beneficial for all parties and particularly the community.

'The partnership approach we've taken to address anti-social behaviour in the CBD has proved to be effective in increasing surveillance, and improving outcomes and information sharing. We've been able to provide a reassuring presence in the CBD and in many instances, deter situations before they escalate. This has been a great win for locals, businesses and visitors.

'While we will continue to work closely with Council Guardians and staff, our local police team has recently increased and we are now well equipped to respond to inner city issues as they arise.

'Incidents in the inner city have continued to decrease which we're pleased to see. We continue to take a zero tolerance approach towards anti-social behaviour and members of the public are reminded to continue to contact Police about concerns and report incidents as they happen, so we can respond appropriately.”

To facilitate the change in primary focus, Council's joint safety patrols with current security partners wound down from October 6.

The Guardian's will be fully operational in their new role by October 13

CCTV continues to be regularly monitored seven days a week, particularly in peak time periods.

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