Emergency services rushed to Church St in Onehunga on Wednesday at about 2.30pm, following reports of a person being stabbed.
[…] Maungakiekie-Tāmaki ward councillor Josephine Bartley said she had seen that residents were expressing concerns for their safety on social media, and it was valid for them to be worried.
No kidding, Captain Obvious.
While she knew the community was scared, police knew who they were looking for and were doing everything as fast as they could.
[…] While people might be concerned about taking public transport, she said Auckland Transport had made safety a priority.
Tools they were using included: GPS, CCTV, a panic button that goes direct to the depot, the bus drivers were trained in de-escalation and there was a text number (4030) to report concerning behaviour.
And how’s that working out?
There were also more transport officers who liaised with police on a regular basis.
[…] The Auckland president of Tramways union, Gary Froggett, said he had worked in the bus driving industry for close to 60 years and had never heard of a person being killed on a bus before.
“There’s been an increase in violence and safety issues since Covid-19, but nothing to this extent.
“I’ve had multiple calls from drivers following this death telling me they’re concerned about their safety going back to work in the morning.”
Many bus drivers had left the job recently, Froggett said, as they’d had enough of violence against them and fights between members of the public.
Here’s what AT needs to do:
They need to stop letting the thugs and troublemakers on without paying and stop tolerating anti-social behaviour. Once someone realises they can get away with the small stuff they start thinking they can get away with the big stuff.
They need to put hefty security on their buses. I’m not talking skinny guys in their 60s. I’m talking big-arse Samoan bouncer types. Remember, thugs who bash up women and Asians on public transport are cowards.
Too unrealistic you say? You take a targeted approach. Identify those routes that are, shall we say, ‘less safe’ and target those. Beef up the security on those routes. Let anyone who’s thinking about doing anything know that they’re going to get their arse soundly kicked if they even so much as try.
Before you call me an armchair ‘whatever’, this in principle is what New York City did back in the ’90s.
They implemented a “broken windows” policy. They started arresting turnstile jumpers, which had the added benefit of catching serious criminals.
They greatly increased the number of cops on the beat.
They used a computer system to target places where crime was likely to take place and distributed resources accordingly.
And it worked.
Of course it’s going to cost a bit of money, and the problem isn’t going to get fixed overnight. But this is where you start.
