Dairy owners working in increased fear have declared a “retail crime emergency” and called for urgent support from law-makers including more legal protection to use self-defence, installation of facial recognition cameras and cracking down on beggars and “feral families”.

As New Zealand enters election year – and on the back of a shocking spate of violent incidents at dairies in 2022, including an alleged murder - the Dairy and Business Owners Group has called the Government out for being “soft on crime” and overseeing a “permissive environment where criminals believe they can operate with impunity”.

The Government, however, says it is committed to backing community-led programmes aimed at reoffending which “we know work”, and a series of multimillion-dollar, anti-crime initiatives.

Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal has released to the Herald a seven-page plan on what it believes will resolve the “retail crime emergency” - a document given to Police Minister Chris Hipkins shortly before Janak Patel’s tragic death.

The dairy worker died in November after an alleged aggravated robbery at the Auckland store he was looking after while its owners were overseas.

“Every New Zealander can see and feel the terrible state ... we are in a crime emergency, it’s now, it’s here,” Kaushal told the Herald.

“The only people who are not able to see and accept are the Cabinet ministers sitting in Beehive.

 “Chris Hipkins replaced Poto Williams [as Police Minister in June]. But it is clear that he has not addressed Labour’s failings in law and order.

“We want the minister to deliver results not excuses. We want solutions now, we want the crimewave to stop, and we want to feel we have more rights as law-abiding citizens than the criminals who are ruining our businesses.”

The latter includes the contents of an eight-point plan the Dairy and Business Owners Group completed late last year.

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The document, called “The Retail Crime Emergency and What’s Needed to Resolve it”, includes a plea for greater legal protection under self-defence laws.

That includes dairy owners and workers having the power to use force to protect their shops, as well as using force to protect themselves and their customers.

Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal claims the Government is guilty of being "soft on crime" and has called for greater protection for retailers. Photo / Jed Bradley

“The current law is inadequate as it does not allow the defence of property and has more holes than Swiss cheese. Australia defines acceptable force and extends self-defence to your property and your house.”

Kaushal has also called for the Government’s Retail Crime Prevention fund, which includes a fog cannon subsidy scheme, to be increased to $30 million. Currently, $10m has been set aside, including an additional $4m to support local councils in Auckland, Hamilton and Bay of Plenty with crime-prevention programmes.

He argued the current scheme should cover all dairies, petrol stations, liquor stores and other retailers targeted by crime - a group Kaushal said could cover up to 10,000 businesses.

Some of that money could also be provided to retailers so they could lease pavements outside their stores allowing them to place anti-ram raid bollards and also trespass “beggars, vagrants and troublemakers”.

Kaushal said dairy owners needed further protection quickly, especially given the latest rise in tax placed on tobacco products.

He said cigarette and tobacco theft was a “major crime driver”.

“These businesses are bleeding to generate $2 billion in tobacco tax for this Government,” he said.

“These businesses have been paying the ultimate price of being good citizens, contributing to the economy by paying their GST and taxes, but the Government is not helping them or listening to them.

“You have seen how serious these incidents have been. There has been a loss of life, another person had their fingers chopped off, and there are so many incidents now that we are losing count of them.”

A greater use of technology in cities and towns across the country was also needed to target the “crime emergency”.

That includes the deployment of artificial intelligence-based street lighting and CCTV in partnerships with local councils.

The widespread use of cameras featuring facial recognition would help detect those who had been trespassed from an area or for patterns associated with crime and disorder, Kaushal said.

“This includes video smart search including what they look like or were wearing, including colour of clothing and even gender,” the plan states.

“Also, what colour vehicle they were in with licence plate-tracking detecting stolen cars before they are used as weapons. This also closes up the time gap between ringing 111 and a police response by tracking a suspect from camera to camera.”

Kaushal has also challenged government agencies to tackle “feral families” who he believes many of those behind retail crime belong to. He said it appeared New Zealand currently had a “rights-obsessed culture where families, no matter how dysfunctional, are being left to their own devices”.

Youth knew what they could get away with, he said.

“There are no consequences as the police pursuits policy leads to escape and they know it,” his group’s paper said. “It is a slap with a wet bus ticket.

“Children must be removed from dysfunction and given the stability, help and education they need to break free.”

Dairy worker Janak Patel died after being stabbed near the Auckland store he was looking after. Photo / Akula Sharma

Government departments also had a big responsibility for getting beggars and homeless people off the streets, a move Kaushal said would reduce their impact on crime.

He proposed the creation of specialist centres “modelled on what we do to resettle refugees”. They would also be places returning 501s from Australia – some who have contributed to the recent crimewave - could go before assimilating back into society.

On December 20, Kaushal wrote to leaders of all political parties in Parliament with his safety concerns after the latest tobacco tax rise of 7.3 per cent.

He feared the price hike would cause “further crime” and the fear of more “barbaric” attacks.

In the aftermath of Patel’s death, the Dairy and Business Owners Group organised several protests around the country raising awareness about the increasingly dangerous environment many retailers were operating under.

But given what he said was the Government’s reluctance to act decisively enough – that includes Hipkins who is yet to respond in writing to the document Kaushal gave him on October 19 – he said it was time to make political allies who might support dairy owners more.

“You can beat the drum, but you cannot beat the drum in front of deaf [people],” he said. “When no one is listening you need to look to [something else].

“There is a lot of anger building across the community because the Government is not doing enough to protect these hardworking people and small businesses. If the Government does not listen, the [people] will decide the Government’s fate.

“I am not taking any political side, but the government of the day is responsible for the safety of the country and its citizens. If this Government is not able to provide safety to New Zealand, then they have no right to govern New Zealand ... simple.”

When asked if dairy security would become a vote-deciding policy for dairy owners, Kaushal said: “Yeah. Enough is enough”.

Last year the Government repealed the Three Strikes Law; a law which had meant those convicted of a third serious violent, sex or drugs offence got the maximum available sentence, unless it would be “manifestly unjust”.

The Dairy and Business Owners Group was opposed to the repeal, with Kaushal telling a select committee considering the stance in March: “If a dairy or retail worker is seriously hurt, or worse, by someone that would have been subject to three strikes, then go on record in your report and pledge to resign your seat. Put your careers where our lives are. Things are going to get a whole lot worse”.

A spokesperson for Duty Minister Ayesha Verrall said questions about the discussions between Kaushal and Hipkins would be best addressed to the Police Minister when his office reopened.

But, she said, the Government had introduced a multimillion-dollar package to tackle retail crime and offending, describing it as “the most significant crime prevention financial package in recent memory“.

That included a new fog cannon subsidy scheme which saw the Government provide $4000 to shops and dairies as part payment.

The package also included the $4m to councils in Auckland, Hamilton and Bay of Plenty with crime-prevention programmes, as well as an expansion of the existing $6m fund.

In terms of young offenders, the spokeswoman said the Government was “supporting the evidence, backing community-led programmes and putting money into areas we know work to help keep young people on the right track”.

“Through our Better Pathways Package we are ensuring young people have a shot at getting a job or back into education and are less likely to go on to offend or reoffend,” she said.

A fast-track intervention pathway had been introduced for children aged 10-13 who were engaging in serious and persistent offending. Children who did reoffend would now have a plan put in place within 24-48 hours.

Te Kotahi Whakaaro, a programme aimed at re-engaging children and young people in education, their family and communities, had been expanded to 14-17 year olds.

“This programme has seen great results so far, with just a 14 per cent reoffending rate,” she said.