“Barred from One, Barred from All” is the motto of the
BarWatch programme, a growing initiative by a network of city centre bars and
clubs aimed at keeping troublemakers out of premises and making the city centre
safer for everyone at night.
Bars
and clubs in the Heart of the City’s Fort St and High St precinct and in the K Road
Business Association area have joined the BarWatch network and using two way
radios to warn other bars about any anti-social behaviour, intoxicated patrons
or other community safety issues. The BarWatch
radio link means that troublemakers who are refused entry at one bar will find
that other bars have been promptly warned not to allow entry elsewhere – a big
step forward in making Downtown Auckland safer for regular night time visitors.
Feedback
from NZ Police as well as the bars themselves indicates that BarWatch has been
effective in helping with a quick and appropriate response to incidents and
enabling bars to build communication between themselves to identify
troublemakers. The BarWatch trial has had input and assistance from the Police
Alcohol Harm Reduction team, who see the programme as a way for bars and clubs to
contribute to reducing major trouble and intoxication issues and to increasing
night time safety in the inner city.
BarWatch
was launched earlier this year, as a Heart of the City initiative following the
Mayoral Task Force on Alcohol which highlighted city centre issues associated
with alcohol and safety. Heart of the City funds and supports the BarWatch trial
which provides two-way radios for a network of 12 bars in the Downtown area, and
adds to the KRoad radio scheme funded by Accident Compensation Corporation. A
radio coordinator, also funded by Heart of the City, is able to sit alongside
the Police CCTV operation on Friday and Saturday nights to provide direct
communication with CityWatch patrols and with Police when their assistance is
required for an urgent incident. The BarWatch Radio link can help
communications between bars and other services, but bar staff still need to
call 111 in any serious incident or emergency.
Bar
owners and door staff have been enthusiastic about the benefits of BarWatch,
seeing that a community network of bars can make a big contribution to keeping
the inner city safe. More bars are now keen to join the current 12 bars in the
Downtown area including Fort St, Fort lane, High St and Vulcan lane, with another
12 in K Road.
The
6 month trial scheme has been a great success thanks to very positive uptake
from bar owners and great support from NZ Police. Heart of the City, with the
assistance of Police, is now looking at ways to ensure the scheme continues and
expands to include many other bars in the city centre. We believe that BarWatch
will develop as a community network of bar owners, encouraging responsible bars
and clubs to support a safe night time environment in their area, with door
staff who are encouraged to use the radio link to prevent persistent
troublemaking.
It’s exciting to see the positive gains made by the Barwatch
programme so far and we’re keen to see it continue to help create a safer city
centre for everyone.
