It is 3.30pm on a sunny afternoon, and Dunedin’s bus hub is full of high school students, commuters and elderly people finishing their shopping.
Security guards are walking the length of the hub, shoulder to shoulder, and a police officer is on foot patrol.
The scene was much the same on May 23 last year when 16-year-old Trinity Catholic College Enere McLaren-Taana was fatally stabbed.
This week a 14-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter after a two-week trial during which Enere’s death was examined in forensic detail.
CCTV showed the defendant chasing the victim into the street, stabbing him in the stomach. The court heard he had pulled out a knife to deter a bully weeks beforehand.
Jurors in the trial were also told about two previous assaults committed by Enere in the lead-up to his death.
Ten months on, people at the hub say the fear and dread present after the stabbing has, for the most part, dissipated.
The security presence is more visible, police can be seen patrolling the area and a new normal has settled in.
For Dunedin resident and regular bus commuter Hannah Williams, the fear that once gripped her when catching her ride home is mostly gone.
She said while she did not believe there had been a noticeable change in behaviour — yet — she had noticed the people waiting at her stop were less afraid.
"I use the bus every day. Immediately after the stabbing last year, it was scary to come here, and everyone was scared ... now that’s changed.
"However, I mainly put that down to the passage of time more than anything else — issues aren’t fixed, but I wouldn’t expect that less than a year on anyway."
For those issues to be fixed, Trinity Catholic College principal Kate Nicholson said what was needed was an entire reset, something that could take years to come about.
Short-term supports had been put in place, but what was really needed was an entire culture change, she said.
"This type of change doesn't happen overnight.
"I am sure I speak for all secondary school and college principals and staff when I say that safety of our young people is the whole community's responsibility."
She said everybody needed to keep growing good values in young people so they respected one another and were confident having a voice in standing up for what was right in society.
A St Hilda's Collegiate School student said she was scared to use the bus hub last year, but had settled into a routine where she caught her bus before the majority of people swarmed in.
"It’s better for the moment — it’s good when it’s not busy," she said.
The fear in the immediate aftermath had a significant impact on businesses in the area, which noticed a sharp drop-off in foot traffic.
But as the months passed people had begun coming back.
A business owner in the area said their sales still had not bounced back to the level they were before the stabbing occurred, but day by day more people were filtering through their doors, and patrons were coming in less wide-eyed and afraid of what was going on metres outside.
"After the stabbing it was bad. Now it’s normal, nothing like before.
"The customers were scared, I was also scared, but they just stopped coming inside the store," they said.
They said people forgot things after a while, and even if the root causes were not gone, people were more settled and confident.
A Dunedin City Council spokesman said the Central City Safety Advisory Group were meeting regularly to develop short-, medium- and long-term options aimed at improving safety and the culture of behaviour at the bus hub and across the central city.
"Several short-term improvements are now in place, including more visible patrolling by police and new security contracts via the Otago Regional Council, and CCTV on George St is also being rolled out."
He said, anecdotally, the benefits of the initiatives were already starting to be seen.
"We’ll have more details to share on these initiatives as they roll out."
A police spokesman said police attended monthly meetings with the DCC, ORC, Regional Public Service Commissioner, Ministry of Education, the Principals Association, Business South, mana whenua, Pacific Trust Otago, Grey Power and the Student Council.
"A Dunedin prevention group ‘beat team’ has been set up by police, which is fully funded and includes a sergeant and four constables.
"Their focus is the central city, and their work includes foot patrols, retail crime, and any other central city crime. This will further increase the visibility of police in the central city," he said.
He said as time went on, all the community partners police were working with hoped to transform the bus hub environment and operations, enhance safety and security and empower youth through reporting and education.
