Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell says her city is putting a stop to never-ending youth crime.
It comes as ram raids continue to plague New Zealand. On Tuesday, police said 12 youths had been arrested after a spate of robberies and ram raids in Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
In the first two months of this year, there had already been 58 ram raids across New Zealand after last year's high of 519.
Tapsell told AM on Wednesday the recent spate of crime was "disappointing".
"The positive thing is that, here in Rotorua, we've shown that by working in partnership with police - by supporting them with resources that we have with [the] council - if you commit a crime in Rotorua, you will get caught," she told co-host Isobel Ewing.
"It's positive that those crimes that did happen, within 24 hours those young people were apprehended," Tapsell said, referring to the dozen youths that were arrested.
An example of how the Rotorua Lakes District Council was working alongside the police was through their Community Safety Plan Partnership, which aimed to support initiatives reducing youth offending.
Tapsell said the partnership played a big part in the arrests of the dozen youths.
"Through using council resources like CCTV cameras, we were able to ensure that the pursuits were successful.
"We were able to find these young people after they committed the crime and, of course, the police were able to take them into custody. Now, that's a really positive thing for our community and a really good sign for New Zealand… [which] was losing a bit of hope when we have all of these crimes happening but no justice occurring, too."
Tapsell said Rotorua's model was sending a strong message to criminals.
"A very big thanks to the police for working so hard to make sure that those who are going to do the wrong things to good people in our community will get caught.
"Our community in Rotorua, we want to feel safe - community safety is a top priority but we acknowledge that our police only have limited resources as well. So by us investing in and also introducing things like city safe guardians, people… will be on the ground, in our inner-city making sure that businesses are safe."
Rotorua Area Commander Insp Herby Ngawhika said the city had decided to do things "a little bit" differently.
"We all want the same thing and that's a safe community," he told AM.
"It's no secret, over the past, we've had some publicity around other matters that have been occurring - so this has been, like I say, us taking control of our destiny here in Rotorua and a start it has been with our local council."
Watch the full video for more.
