Napier Assist / Āwhina Tāngata – Commencing Monday 27 June.

You will remember back in May 2021 we presented Napier City Council with a submission to say YES to the development of the street management Napier Ambassador Programme. A number of you provided feedback which we include in our final submission and presented at the Long Term Plan Hearings. Safety is a key objective in our NCBI strategy.  We had made a number of submissions in previous years which were declined, so for us, this is an EPIC WIN for everyone who works, shops, plays, and lives in our city. 

Napier City Council is excited to report that the Napier Assist / Āwhina Tāngata commences this service ahead of time on Monday 27 June, with both patrol and CCTV monitoring operations commencing at the same time. While the operations will be small to start with, they will continue to build the team and intend to scale up as their capability grows.  As you know they have mapped full maturity over a 5-year timeframe.

Napier Assist Officers will work varying shifts between the hours of 7 am-6 pm, focused on Napier CBD to start with, but expanding to other commercial centres once the team grows. There is five dedicated Napier Assist Āwhina Tāngata staff already on board, working with Team Leader, Dan Hicks. The team has under-gone training including working with City Assist Officers in Hastings to learn on the job as they shadow the Hastings officers doing their mahi.

We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Rachael Bailey, Manager of Regulatory Solutions, and Team Leader Dan Hicks for their hard mahi in getting this programme up and running for our city, and a personal thank you from me for putting up with my countless phone calls requesting updates on timelines, etc. You guys rock!  Additionally a big thank you to Mayor Kirsten Wise and NCC Councillors for saying a big YES to the vital investment of this fantastic programme for our community.  Partnerships are really important to us and it takes a village to support safety in a city. For this programme to be successful, we welcome working closely with the Napier Assist Team, Police, and other community organisation in the future.

Finally, It is important for people to understand Napier Assist Āwhina Tāngata is not taking over the role of Police, and if you witness criminal behaviour you should still be calling 111 or 105.