Margaret Green is putting out a request for more people to join the Te Puke Community Patrol (CPNZ Te Puke), formerly known as Te Puke Night Owls.

'If you can spare an hour or two every two months,” says Margaret, 'please do consider joining our patrollers, whose primary aim is to help keep our Te Puke streets safe, day and night.”

Known as Gig, she has been the patrol coordinator for the last five-to-six years. Numbers have dropped from 90 to about 40 members, so Gig and patrol secretary Jan Ward are keen to recruit more people.

Volunteers can choose to do a day or night patrol. For safety reasons, the night patrol only covers the Te Puke urban area. During the day, pairs of patrollers usually cover a one to two hour stint anywhere from Little Waihi to the Papamoa Hills.

The car has been provided by Trustpower and the petrol paid through fundraising.

'We'd like to attract the younger set and businesses,” says Gig. 'We're not the police. We're only the eyes and ears.”

Gig draws up the rosters, and liaises with the Wellington headquarters to take new members through the vetting process so they can be certified patrollers.

She volunteers at Te Puke Police Station three times a week and police provide a ‘Tasking Sheet', which advises of areas of concern, and suggested places for the patrol to go.

At the end of each patrol a ‘Log Sheet' is completed, which often provides valuable information to police in instances of crime. To fill in a sheet with the words 'nothing of interest was noted” is as important to police as reporting an incident, as it quickly enables them to discount areas that may have been close to an incident.

Gig rosters six people every week on a five-weekly rotation, but is short on night patrollers.

Members are provided with access to regular training opportunities, and Gig believes that the low crime rate in Te Puke can be attributed to police maintaining a strong presence and the CPNZ car being an additional visual deterrent.

CPNZ Te Puke also oversee the running of Graffiti Busters - a group dedicated to keeping incidences of graffiti to a minimum.

'For us to continue with these patrols, we are desperately searching for more volunteers,” says Gig. 'If we could reach a targeted level of 65 patrollers or more, we would then be able to have a roster whereby a patroller would only have to go out on patrol for a couple of hours once every two-to-three months.”

If you're interested in joining CPNZ Te Puke, please contact Gig Green on: 07 573909 or: 027 430 6383. You can also email: meegreen11@gmail.com or contact Jan Ward on: 021 303323 or: kisimuljan@gmail.com