A higher police presence, shutting bars earlier and the installation of closed circuit cameras would go a long way to solving the problem of violence in the Octagon, in Dunedin, National Party police spokesman Chester Borrows said yesterday.
Mr Borrows said in an interview the subject of violence in the Octagon had been brought up many times during his visit.
The former policeman was concerned that bars were closing at a time when the least number of police were on duty.
He advocated closing bars at 1am or 2am when the maximum number of police would be available to deal with drunk people.
Asked who would pay for the installation of the cameras, Mr Borrows said usually they were paid for by councils, community trusts and business organisations.
However, the problem was not all down to people getting drunk in bars.
The cheap price of ready to drink (RTD) mixtures - less than $2 a bottle in many cases - encouraged young people to get drunk somewhere else before travelling into the centre of Dunedin.
While he was in Dunedin, Mr Borrows met members of Dunedin police hierarchy.
At the last election, National had a policy of 1000 more frontline police.
Labour accepted the extra police requirement through a coalition deal with New Zealand First but had put less than half of them on the frontline, Mr Borrows said.
In the first two years, the new frontline staff had been posted north of Taupo.
It was important cities such as Dunedin received their share of new police and Mr Borrows expected that a National-led government would ensure extra police for the South.
Although South Auckland's crime problems had escalated recently, there were still serious problems in the South, he said.
Recruitment problems would be overcome by raising the public esteem in the police force.
That would be achieved by giving the police crime targets that met public expectations.
"They are sick of having to meet targets and measures the public don't see as important.
We need to set the police up to succeed and so they know they have the resources to meet public goals.
Once we do that, people will fall over themselves to apply for the police."
