A small business owner has warned someone is going to get "quite badly hurt" as nothing is changing, with the same kids coming back time and time again to commit ram-raids and smash-and-grabs.
Crime has spiked in New Zealand this year, with 254 ram-raids in the first six months of 2022 - a 518 percent increase from the same months in 2018.
A police report found 76 percent of ram raids were committed by youths under 17 years old, with 17 percent being under 13.
Ash Parmar, owns two shops in Hamilton, said repeat offenders are starting to take their toll.
He told AM on Thursday in his experience, police are doing everything they can but the Courts and the Government are letting offenders back out on the streets without any real consequences.
"I mean, I don't know what else to do really. You talk to police, they don't really know what else to do. They're picking up the same kids again and again and taking them to court. Court is not doing anything either, so yeah, I'm out of ideas as well," Parmar told AM co-host Amanda Gillies.
As crime becomes more brazen, Parmar warns someone is going to get quite badly hurt.
"I think something bad is going to happen, which is such a loser mentality that we have to think like that. That we've got to wait for something really bad to happen to get more of a response from the Government because police are doing the work, it's quite evident police is doing the work," he said.
"They're picking up these youths, sitting them in front of the court, but the court seems to be doing nothing and the Government seems to be not interested in trying to bring something stronger in."
The Government announced in May they were investing $6 million from the Proceeds of Crime Fund into establishing a police programme focused on small retail crime prevention.
The programme will be managed by police and will explore solutions to ram-raids such as installing bollards or other protective structures. It will be focused on Auckland to begin with, but can be expanded if required.
The ACT Party believes the Government needs to make the process for shops to get access to those measures easier so they protect themselves to prevent further attacks.
Leader David Seymour told AM Early on Thursday protective measures do help once they're installed but the criteria to be eligible needs to be simplified.
"I visited a dairy that got robbed six times in five months, hasn't been robbed for five months, mainly because of the extra hard enough put in place. But for the most part, getting consents to put up bollards from the council has stopped them," Seymour told AM Early.
"Getting funding out of the Government has been an absolute wild goose chase where they can't apply. They've got to wait for the police to talk to them and the police will only give you something if you've already been ram-raided."
It's a view Parmar agrees with.
"I'm not aware of anyone who's been able to access that fund yet. Some of the feedback we've heard is that some stores who are feeling quite anxious, we haven't been ram-raided yet, that you have to been ram-raided at least once or twice, from my understanding, before you apply," he said.
"You've got to be in such a losing mindset that you are almost wishing you get ram-raided, so you can access these funds, which is not ideal."
Watch the full interview with Ash Parmar above.
