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Local boards in Auckland will get an equal share of crime prevention funding, after Mayor Wayne Brown rejected a recommendation from staff to allocate it according to need, using crime data.
A total of $2 million was given to Council by the Ministry of Social Development to invest in community safety initiatives.
The Regulatory and Safety committee voted on May 30, to allocate $1 million to local boards, and $1 million through council affiliated Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).
This option was put forward in a resolution by Mayor Wayne Brown – it went against council staff’s advice that $1 million should be put into a contestable grant and $1 million to local boards with the use of crime data to decide the distribution of funding.
Originally staff suggested distributing 75 percent of the $1 million go to local boards based on based on crime data each area and 25 percent split evenly across all 21 local boards.
But the Mayor was reluctant to use crime data to distribute the funding amongst local boards, suggesting that the difference in crime in some areas could be put down to which BIDS have spent money on crime prevention.
Committee chair, Cr Josephine Bartley, encouraged the Mayor to use the crime data as it was staff’s preferred option and the seconder of Brown’s motion, Cr Ken Turner, also appeared reluctant to exclude the data.
Data between February 2019 and January 2023 across Auckland’s wards shows that Waitematā had significantly higher rates, with more than 50,000 victimisations over that period.
However, the Mayor’s resolution was passed and Cr Bartley said while the $2 million would not make much difference to addressing crime, it was at least a drop in the bucket.
The Hibiscus and Bays Local Board supported the idea of allowing local boards to allocate the money in their areas for crime prevention initiatives.
