All eyes on the streets as Big Brother helps to keep Hamilton safe

They are the eyes and feet on Hamilton streets in an attempt to help crack down on criminal behaviour in the city.

The city has been plagued with ramraids, aggravated robberies and burglaries, which is taking its toll on retailers.

Police have apprehended 19-year-old Trayd Tahau in connection to the aggravated robbery of Irvine St Dairy, where a shopkeeper was viciously attacked with a machete.

The Hamilton City Council has eyes on the city with over 500 City Safe cameras monitoring the city streets.

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City Safe’s operation’s manager Paul Blewman’s office is just a few metres from a wall of screens which hosts cameras from around the city 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In 1998 the CCTV system in the central city was set up by Hamilton Crime Prevention Trust in partnership with Hamilton City Council. Ownership and management of the cameras transferred to the council in 2004.

The camera’s can be linked to the police Northern communications centre, and while they don’t do facial recognition, they do have analytics available. It also allows them to track vehicles if police require help.

“The camera operators get to know people’s behaviour. We are people watchers, that is what we do.”

There is an extensive training programme for the operators to go through.

Blewman said one area that comes in for special attention is the Te Huia train, with it being a highly sought after target for graffiti artists.

“The plastic vinyl on them is hugely expensive, and it only takes six or seven removals before it’s buggered, and it’s about $10,000 a sheet. Unfortunately for that sort of tagging people pre-Covid would travel around the world to do it. But the cost and the damage is just astronomical.”

The camera operator can assist with fleeing drivers, and robberies.

“Like the burglary of Cash Converters in Bryce St a few months ago. By letting police know, they sealed off both ends of the street. They took about $85,000 worth of stuff which the police recovered.”

They can now upload footage straight to police systems, and they have access to that straight away.

Operations safety officer team leader Craig Walker hits the pavement most days, armed with a body camera – they are looking out for all types of behaviour.

“The ones that don’t make eye contact are the ones I usually go talk to. Graffiti is a big thing we work pretty closely with Tag Busters. Pretty much talking to people, interacting, engaging, you get to know when stuff isn’t quite right, and usually it’s just to go over and say hello. Because once you say hello to somebody they know they’ve been seen.”

Most team members clock up at least 30,000 steps a day.

It’s not all about crime; they check in on shopkeepers and check things like busker’s permits.

They have also recently started a pilot programme where team members patrol the river walkway on e-bikes.

Williams said he doesn’t get scared after having been in the role for a while now, having been trained in de-escalation

“I do a lot of preparation stuff as I am going to work. You are mindful of what could go wrong, but your training does kick in.”

The City Safe members can’t arrest or impede anyone’s movements.

“We take away a lot of the police’s low level work.”

Tag Busters are also an important part of keeping the city safe.

Blewman said people don’t understand the effect graffiti can have on someone feeling safe or not. A well-tagged area can make people feel they’re in an unsafe area.

“It isn’t done because they have a repressed artist inside them, these people are doing it because they know it’s wrong, and they might get caught and the thrill of it.”

Last year until December 21, Tag Busters had been notified of 19,805 tags, and the total area they painted was 82,093.18 square metres, the equivalent of 12 rugby fields.

That saw them use 5750 litres of paint and of those jobs 7017 were reported and those completed in two week days is at 80.99%.

In 2021 there were 11,379 tags and the total area painted was 45,734.30 square metres.

Tagbuster supervisor Gopal Chand is at Mardon Rd shops every week.

“Every tag we remove, take a photo and store it in our database.”

A large percentage of the tags are reported to tag busters.

“We are proactively trying to help the shopkeepers because of the issues they’re having. We drive past and when we see it we do it. “

He said depending on the surface of the tagging, 60% of all jobs is generally removal which is chemically and/or water blasting.

Chand said it can be frustrating to return to places they’ve already cleaned previously.

“But I have been here 12 years, I now think I just keep moving to keep the city clean.”

He said tagging has definitely increased with the city growing in all directions.

“After lockdown it’s a four-fold increase in the amount tagging. It had really slowed down but then after the lockdowns people were out and tagging.”