City Safe plan

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Priority areas

Priority area 1
Working together: A partnership approach

Objective: Auckland City will work in partnership with key stakeholders who have a role in improving safety. Safety issues in the community will be led or coordinated by council in conjunction with either central government departments, and/or business organisations and/or community agencies.

Performance measure: Feedback from the above stakeholders will inform progress on result areas in the annual perceptions of safety survey.

1.1. Engage in innovative ways to increase safety of Auckland

• Work to broaden and increase effective partnerships with central government agencies such a Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and other agencies
• Identify new ways of increasing engagement with sectors such as young people, Maori, etc
• Investigate new ways of funding safety initiatives through partnerships
• Establish an annual safety forum to engage sectors of the community that will feed ideas and issues into the Public Safety and Community Order Committee and the Safer Auckland City Executive Committee
• Inclusion of identified groups on the Safer Auckland City Executive Committee.

1.2. Safer Auckland City

• Maintain an effective partnership between Police, Ngati Whatua O Orakei, the Auckland City District Police and the Crime Prevention Unit to enhance community safety and reduce opportunities for crime in Auckland city
• In partnership implement community safety and crime reduction projects.

1.3. Community networks and organisations

• Identify and support neighbourhood initiatives that enhance community safety such as Community Action on Youth and Drugs (CAYAD), Pacific Providers Network in Glen Innes, Eastside Youth Network.
• Utilise existing advisory groups such as the Auckland City Youth Council (ACYC), Pacific Island Board or Disability Advisory Group to identify and discuss safety issues impacting specific communities.
• Coordinate an annual Mayor of Auckland Community Safety Awards ceremony to celebrate members of the community who go the extra mile to respond to violence and victimisation, increase safety and well-being and reduce crime and injury in Auckland city's many communities.
• Work with third sector and private providers to target programmes for 'at-risk' groups such as young people, refugees and older people.
• Run programmes in council facilities that target 'at risk' groups in the community.

1.4. Business and private sector

• Develop and maintain relationships with Heart of the City, Mainstreet groups and other business associations.

1.5. Alcohol related crime

• Work in partnership to implement the Alcohol Strategy to reduce alcohol related crime through effective
  • Monitoring and enforcement
  • Alcohol Accords
  • Alcohol related violence reduction programmes
• Assess and implement new alcohol bans in hotspot areas as identified by the police and council.

1.6. Community Boards

• Work with Community Boards to identify and support crime and safety related initiatives in their communities.
• Work with Community Boards to increase knowledge of safety issues and possibly partnerships and actions.

Priority area 2
Safe places and spaces: A safe environment

Objective: To provide well designed streetscapes and parks to increase the real and perceived safety of Auckland city by using quality urban design and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.

Performance Measure: Perceptions of safety survey registers improved satisfaction with safety in Auckland city public spaces.

2.1 A safe well designed city

• Urban design principles are integrated as part of all council processes.
• Develop a methodology that ensures that urban design and CPTED principles are considered in all significant council driven capital works and urban design projects.
• Provide training to ensure urban design principles are understood and applied as part of all council processes.
• Develop partnerships with external stakeholders to promote urban design principles.

2.2 Safe parks and open spaces

Lighting

• Develop and implement a Lighting Strategy for Auckland City incorporating the Pedestrian Lighting Guidelines and the Street Lighting Guidelines
• Consider lighting in all hot spot evaluations and redevelopment work as per the above lighting guidelines.

Signage/ Wayfinding

• Ensure parks, town centre streetscapes and open spaces have effective signage and way finding identifying town centre layouts and facilities and showing contact details of the council where appropriate.

Safe Parks

• Develop a set of guidelines which informs decision making in regards to safety issues in parks such as:
  • Lighting
  • Security fencing and locking of parks
  • Security alarms
  • Night time use of parks
  • Surveillance and sightlines
• Improve surveillance (natural, technical and formal) and sightlines in parks and open spaces so that people can feel safer. This will increase public usage and engender greater community ownership of the areas.
• Support a range of large and small community events throughout the year to increase the use of the safety in parks and public spaces.
• Co-ordinate and facilitate community-based physical activity opportunities to increases safety in parks and public spaces.

Security alarms

• Investigate the feasibility of emergency help phones/buttons in high-risk parks e.g. Albert Park.

Presence of people in parks

• Raise the visibility of council staff and contractors in parks to increase safety.
• Extend the park volunteer scheme to increase community presence and community ownership of parks.

Safe design of parks and community facilities

• Undertake CPTED assessments as part of redevelopment of the parks, open spaces and streetscapes planning and design process.
• Undertake CPTED assessments at all community facilities and implement recommendations through annual plan and capital expenditure cycles.

Safe city streets: Ambassadors

• Continue the Ambassador programmes to provide a welcoming presence on streets in the CBD.
• Require ambassadors and other staff e.g. traffic wardens, to audit the city for environmental safety issues, e.g. unsafe pavers, rubbish bins, and to provide passive surveillance of crime and safety issues, such as referring difficult situations to the after-hours Outreach Team or the response teams within the various city missions.

Car parks

• Pilot the car park building safety accreditation standards through the implementation of this programme in all council owned car parks
• Ensure that the standards for car park buildings are applied to open air car parks for surveillance, access, control and management as per the national guidelines from the Ministry of Justice (when completed).
• Encourage all private car park owners to participate in the accreditation scheme.

CCTV

• Install CCTV as approved, in identified areas such as redevelopments and hot spots in the CBD.
• Work across council to identify possible CCTV installations during the design stage or redevelopment of capital works or for an identified period for a specific issue.
• Work with Traffic Management Unit for all issues related to the traffic CCTV network.

Graffiti

• Work with the zero tolerance approach of the graffiti programme so that there is investigation and implementation of changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of graffiti control and prevention measures. This will include involvement in the regional graffiti management initiative and managing graffiti on council infrastructure and facilities.

Transport

• Ensure the safety of train stations, access ways, bus stations/stops, park and ride facilities and ferry terminals is improved by the incorporation of CPTED and urban design principles in the concept and detailed design stages of such projects wherever possible.

Vacant buildings

• Develop a security policy around vacant buildings on council owned land, which includes a methodology for the tracking and reporting of vacant buildings and maintenance and security issue mitigation.

Street trading

• Develop a street trading policy that reflects the values of passive surveillance of street trading, whilst ensuring CPTED principles are considered and sufficient public walkway is maintained.

2.4 Adult entertainment facilities

Alcohol and licensed premises

• As per the Alcohol strategy work in partnership to reduce alcohol related crime through effective
  • Monitoring and enforcement
  • Alcohol Accords
  • Alcohol related violence reduction programmes
• Assess and implement new alcohol bans in hotspot areas as identified by the police and council
• Investigate options for the District Plan Review to include measures to control the location of premises licensed as taverns, clubs and standalone off licences as per the Alcohol Strategy.

Brothels and commercial sex premises

• Review the brothels and commercial sex premises bylaw to ensure appropriate controls are placed on brothels, to decrease the perceived safety risks associated with location and signage of brothels and commercial sex premises
• Continue to place appropriate restrictions on signage relating to brothels and commercial sex premises as per the brothel and commercial sex premises bylaw.

Class 4 gambling venues

• Continue to place appropriate restrictions on the number of electronic gaming machines, class 4 gambling venues and New Zealand Racing Venues with the city as per the Gambling Venue Policy to reduce the negative perception of the safety of an areas due to the presence of gambling venues.
• Advocate for explicit regulatory powers to fully implement the restrictions on signage relating to class 4 gambling venues as per the Gambling Venue Policy.

Priority area 3
Living together: A welcoming and inclusive city

Objective: To improve the real and perceived safety amongst particular vulnerable groups in the community by developing a process to engage target groups around understanding priorities, specific needs and issues around safety.

These groups include:

• Older persons
• Young people
• Children and families
• Women
• People with disabilities
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex
• Homeless
• Victim groups
• Refugees
• Maori
• Pacific Peoples
• New migrants.

Performance Measure: Responses from the Perception of Safety Survey indicate an improvement from identified groups, and actual safety from crime statistics analysis.

3.1 Understand safety needs and issues for identified groups

Investigate ways to increase engagement of identified groups such as

• An annual safety forum
• Inclusion of wider representation from the above groups on the SAC executive committee
• Incorporating specific questions reflecting the needs of the above groups in future safety surveys
• Applying a more in-depth research with these groups as appropriate
• Working through council, community advisors and community partnerships to achieve a greater inclusion of the above groups
• Using safety surveys to identify issues and develop remedial action to meet the safety needs of the above target groups.

3.2 Develop effective responses to safety needs and issues of groups in partnership with other agencies and organisations

• Identify issues and identify possible solutions
• Identify gaps in service
• Identify roles and responses of major providers
• Complete an action plan that identifies actions and key milestones.

3.3 Celebrate diversity as an inclusive city

• Effectively provide, promote and champion Auckland's diversity through cultural events and policies ie Lantern Festival, Matariki, Diwali, Auckland Cultural Festival, Pasifika
• Provide new migrants with information and contacts to enable them to participate in their community.

Priority area 4
Having a voice: An informed and empowered community

Objective: To inform and empower the community so that there is increased community involvement in response to safety issues.

Performance Measure: Increased number of diverse community groups are involved in the safety work in the city.

4.1 Facilitating a community response to neighbourhood safety issues

• Develop community safety plans to identify and alleviate safety issues
• Complete community safety plans for all Mainstreets and other identified areas within 5 years.

4.2 Council facilities

• Run programmes in council facilities that target 'at risk' groups.

4.3 Communications strategy

• Complete a communications strategy that promotes safety initiatives in Auckland City and positively promotes safety related images.

4.4 Branding and signage

• Promote safety branding of projects with Auckland City branding for example Park Safe, Serve Safe and Home Safe
• Ensure that the 'perceptions of safety' survey investigates the effectiveness of branding.

4.5 Perceptions of Safety survey

• Carry out an annual 'perceptions of safety' survey that measures improvements from the previous survey and identifies the community's current safety concerns.

Published February 2007