Almost a third of public place violence in Christchurch is now linked to family harm, and much of it is happening in supermarket car parks and playgrounds rather than behind closed doors.

Canterbury District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill named public place violence as the crime trend that concerns him most heading into summer.

“Often we think about that’s here in the city, that might be closing hours of the strip when intoxicated people are coming out. But it’s actually broader than that, because what we’re seeing is almost a third of public place violence is actually associated to family harm in some way,” he told Chris Lynch Media.

“Our more significant family harm cases are playing out in car parks and supermarkets, or in playgrounds, and things can happen over the handover of children in joint custody cases, or just where particularly the perpetrator is very fixated on the victim for whatever reason.”

Put to him that most people assume family violence happens in private, Hill was direct.

“It’s often not, and probably the worst of it actually occurs in public places. These are people that are in estranged relationships and still dealing with the separations and things.”

A second group driving the trend is young offenders, he said.

Demand rises over summer and the increase has already begun, Hill said, and police intend to be positioned for it.

“We’re going to be very determined this summer to be in the right place to ensure those things don’t occur. In relation to family harm perpetrators, we’re going to have a much more in depth focus on them as offenders.”

Deployment is planned well ahead using what police call the crime calendar, which flags the times of year when offending is likely to rise. Staff numbers shift accordingly, with more officers into malls and onto the beat during school holidays where larger groups of young people gather.

Highways are also a priority over the holiday periods, including the routes running through to Wanaka and Queenstown.

This summer carries an added complication.

“You’ve got to chuck into the mix this year as well with Super El Niño. So we’ve got a weather pattern coming this summer that might see, particularly for Canterbury, that our staff are involved in helping FENZ in terms of cordons, and we might have forest fires and all sorts of things to deal with.”

Police have mapped their deployment through to about March or April next year, and hold a business continuity plan setting out which services get scaled back if one area starts demanding more, Hill said.

He was in no hurry for the weather to improve.

“We do need days like this where it’s drizzly and rainy all day, because particularly our civil defence would tell us that every day of rain can push the drought season out by one or two days.”

On commercial burglaries, Hill acknowledged the gap between the police view and the experience of business owners who keep being hit, including a Memorial Avenue operator targeted three times in recent weeks and again on Sunday despite increased patrols.

“We are responsive to commercial burglaries in a general sense, but I know that from these shop owners, they probably feel the complete opposite of that.”

Cases are often difficult because little is left forensically and camera coverage can be poor, he said. Alcohol remains a common target, and bottle stores are hit from time to time.

“The days of ram raids might be over, but there’s still some offending being committed by youth where they are stopping outside or nearby the premise, using an iron bar or something to effect their entry, and only need to step one or two metres in and they’re able to grab what they’re after.”

“I fully understand this is distressing for business owners, and it’s incredibly inconvenient, but also very costly.”

Police work with owners on ways to target harden their premises, he said.

On methamphetamine, wastewater testing shows use falling across the district, and Canterbury now sits second lowest of the country’s 12 policing districts.

Hill was careful not to treat that as a win.

“Even small instances of methamphetamine use can be devastating to our communities. We still see things like people’s houses being subject to being raided by other criminals and the violence associated with those things.”

“Until this drug’s eradicated from our community completely, then we won’t be out of harm’s way.”

The district’s population means the low rate still represents a significant number of users, he said.

Most of the harm police deal with flows from the cost of the habit rather than the drug itself.

“It wouldn’t be unrealistic for someone to have a $1,000 a day habit. You’ve obviously got to drive an income around that, and some of that’s coming from crime.”

“We know it ruins families, and if they’ve got jobs, they soon don’t have. It’s not just the harm to the individual involved from a health perspective, but the whole harm around the family.”

Police are working with Customs on border interception and with health services on addiction, targeting both users and sellers, Hill said.

“We’re trying to attack it both from the user angle and from the seller angle, to make sure we’re doing absolutely everything to make it as difficult as possible to peddle this drug in our communities.”

On the sudden death in Sydenham, Hill said residents who get a knock on the door should not read anything sinister into it.

Police were initially unsure whether foul play was involved and took a few days to rule it out, he said. The remaining work is being done for the coroner.

“We’re satisfied now, and so is the coroner, that foul play is not involved. If there’s certain inquiries the coroner requires to be done to enable them to determine the cause of death in due course when they get to a hearing, then we carry out them on behalf of the coroner. That’s what’s happening in this case.”