Senior Constable Deb Hann – On the Beat
As you are aware, I am very passionate about making Cambridge an unattractive location for opportunist and recidivist criminals.
I appreciate the steps our retailers and the community as a whole are already taking in this regard. This week’s good news story saw an offender recently plead guilty in Hamilton District Court to a charge of shoplifting.
The offender was not located on the day of the crime and his identity was not initially known. A lengthy investigation over four months was undertaken however, which resulted in a positive ID – a distinctive calf tattoo proved crucial. This example shows that where an offender isn’t immediately located, even a small unique attribute can enable us to identify them at a later stage – thus they are still held to account. CCTV footage is excellent for this. Sometimes it is a distinctive piece of clothing rather than a tattoo or physical trait and often such characteristics help us to link different offences together.
We continue to be hit by retail offenders coming in from outside of Cambridge. Good reporting has been key to enabling us to secure the great catches you’ve heard about in recent weeks. Keep the 111 calls coming whenever something requires immediate police attendance.
In other news, I’d like to thank everyone that gave up their time to attend the recent Roto-o-Rangi Community Crime Prevention meeting. We had a great turn out and many also took the opportunity to become members of Neighbourhood Support. One local issue that was raised with me was dangerous driving on Roto-o-Rangi road. While motorists are moving wide to give cyclists a safe berth, this at times has seen them put themselves and others at risk. One example given was of a car crossing the centreline to go around the cyclist yet at the same time, causing an oncoming truck to have to take evasive action. If you are behind a cyclist, be sure to wait until the road ahead is well clear, before moving to overtake.
I have a couple of other traffic reminders, this time around lights. With the dense fog we are experiencing, it is imperative that you manually turn your headlights on so that you can be seen by other motorists. If your headlights are set to auto, they won’t turn on for fog. This increases the chance of a traffic crash occurring. Please also be aware that it is illegal to have other than white headlights in use while driving. I recently came across a vehicle with remote controlled bulbs in their headlights that cycled through different colours. Such lights can confuse other motorists and cause distraction on the road. Have a good week and stay safe.
