However, the council says funding and installing cameras is only part of the solution.
The council’s group manager for corporate services, Charlie Billington, said council staff would welcome an opportunity to meet with Ōpononi business owners.
“While I cannot comment on this case specifically, the council’s district-wide public safety camera network has been successfully used by New Zealand Police to investigate numerous criminal cases.”
Billington said that showed how cameras were a crime-fighting tool.
He said the council’s application to the Department of Justice’s Proceeds of Crime Fund for district-wide public safety equipment, including cameras, was being considered by the Government.
Singh said the incident had shocked him. He planned to upgrade his own cameras inside and outside the shop and now found it challenging to stay open later than 5.30pm.
He believed more cameras would help identify suspects, investigate incidents and monitor suspicious behaviour.
“We don’t want our family to suffer later on, and my staff,” he said.
Singh felt Ōpononi was more vulnerable because of its relative isolation, with the nearest police station in Rāwene about a 20-minute drive away.
However, he was impressed by how quickly police had responded to his store.
Singh said alcohol consumption, the influx of visitors and the township becoming quieter after dark contributed to his concerns about safety.
“I mean, somewhere like in Kaikohe may be fine when there’s people around,” he said.
Singh said his other shop in Kaikohe, next to the police station, had also been targeted in the past, but not as often as shops further from the station.
Billington said the council was guided by police intel on crime levels for CCTV camera locations.
The network would only be effective if it were monitored, which posed a possible barrier for a smaller community.
There were cameras installed at the i-Site in Ōpononi, which covered the carpark area, he said.
The council also planned to install automatic number plate recognition cameras in Ōpononi and public safety cameras in Ōmapere, including at Freese Park.
He said the council would be consulting with the community and members of the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board on camera locations in the coming weeks.
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.