Business owners in the Auckland suburb of Remuera have taken matters into their own hands to fight crime.
The Remuera Business Association has spent $180,000 installing a high-tech security system that can track the movement of vehicles and people in a matter of minutes.
Managing director of Nextro Security Martyn Levy told AM the cameras don't only provide hard evidence, but would hopefully act as a deterrent to offenders.
"People see the cameras and hopefully don't actually go out and carry out any crimes."
And if the crimes are carried out, Levy said with the use of 'quick search', a vehicle of interest can be tracked down from the moment it appeared on CCTV to the time it left.
"But for those who do [commit crime], if they're brazen, [we] would be able to use these cameras to detect illegal activity or detect some situation going on in the precinct."
Remuera Business Association Business manager Natalie Wright told AM the association funded the $180,000 security upgrade through a ratepayer bid.
"We can decide through a board process what we can spend our money on. With COVID we couldn't do a lot of events, so we decided to invest in security, as we saw [it] as a very great way to spend our money."
Wright said the high-tech security system does have the capability to track people's faces, but because of privacy, the system isn't carrying that out.
"We don't want to go there at the moment, we don't want to upset anybody. Even some people take offence to the registration reading cameras."
She said many local shop owners don't feel safe because of recent crimes, but hopes the security upgrade will provide that extra blanket of safety.
"It could happen to them at any time. Like you saw in Ellerslie the other day. [They] don't care."
She said with the major upgrade now in full swing, Remuera could be the safest suburb in Aotearoa.
"We can literally see anything that happens in Remuera. We have monitoring 24 hours a day nearly."
Watch the full interview above.
