How secure is the Christchurch CBD Red Zone really?

Kia Ora,

In short its not & never really has been apart from first week or so whilst people gathered themselves.

We entered the Red Zone about a week & a half after the February 22nd wee shake to carryout a security task.

First few days we were there the police were everywhere soldiers manned most of the fences & yet still we could see people breaching the cordon. Over the first two weeks we caught or spotted about ten breaches at night & the day shift just lost count.

One issue was as more & more fences become unmanned people just pulled them aside or climbed them(one day 8 trucks & people were seen to enter retrieve their goods from businesses & residence in a drop zone, nothing was initially done even though police were informed).

One that was manned the soldiers thought the cars flicking their lights on full were looking for the girls who used to occupy that street. They were quickly put right in that what the cars were doing was the same tactic as the looters in the residential areas out east were doing. Trying to see if anyone was manning the gate or sleeping so they could breach. Out east they were trying to see if people were home.

As time went on especially after the bridge near us was closed we saw less & less police down our end & they withdrew the officer at a post nearby where we were going on our patrols to report anything we seen.

With the street next to us, which we had to travel to check some of the three buildings we were there to keep an eye on, suddenly closed off due to likelihood of falling material then the bridge the other side due to our checks becoming closed off we suddenly had to range quite wide to keep up the security. It did mean travelling outside our designated area but the police were always informed why we were doing that when stopped. Not that it was much use as out of town police they had no idea of the areas on the Maps detailing your area of work.

After four weeks we were withdrawn but were back shortly after as one of those buildings was looted. The looters came up the river by boat. But then we had been telling people we had seen tracks of someone walking up the river bank. One guy was even caught by our team who had been told by authorities to walk up the river bank(though he obviously wasn't supposed to get as far as he did).

During the day contractors who have too, due to heavy machinery or trucks not been able to turn around, open the cordon fences. Because those fences are not manned as much as they have been it is common for cars to follow trucks in.

Not to mention that those on the check points got slack & were more interested on what is on their Ipod or MP3 than getting out of their deck chairs to stop people from entering even on foot as one person told me they did one night. Another woman was able to walk the length of the red zone to her place of work during the day.

In the last two weeks a group of tourists have been caught by someone working inside the redzone walking around. In exchange for not calling the police they had the tourists take them back to where they got in. Fence was pulled up & everyone was crawling under it within 100 metres of a check point. It is actually a common point people are gaining access.

Sources tell me one burglar only got caught because it was so easy to get in & avoid poice patrols he went back a third time only to be caught by a patrol not roving around with their lights on full going at warp factor 9(which was unusual).

Just recently whilst in the vicinity of the cordon someone asked how to get to an intersection they shouldn't be able too, to get into the red zone to recover items. They had no pass, no helmet or high viz. The intersection is nomally on the edge of the cordon but not a point of entry. So obviously someone had found a breach & they were going to enter to retrieve their goods. All we told them was they had to go to the Art Gallery to get a pass. But on talking to someone else working on the edge of the cordon it seemed the directions to that corner was often asked.

Like a regular highway into the Red Zone it seems & everybody knows about it.

It was actually the same area where tourists breached & the two I caught when going to visit someone. No one acted on the information we gave previously to stop breaches so waste of time telling anyone.

It was obvious though the older police officers understood what we were doing in the way of proactive security, since we could not actually patrol the buildings we were looking after, that many police now don't understand the nature of been proactive. Driving around at speed with your headlights on full(especially in fog) & sidelights blazing is not proactive. Its nothing.

Apparently there are a number of postings on Youtube of business owners & residences getting in to get their goods avoiding police easily.

Then there is the new volunteer force to patrol the outer perimeter of the CBD. From observations passed to me pretty much what I expected.

Next to Useless!

Much what you get with the community watch programme. Some very good people & most who have no idea what suspicious activity is. There used to be a crew out Hornby way that were very very good but they left for same reasons for my comment above.

They haven't as yet picked up the breaches in the fences others have seen as they go past. It is really a feel good patrol not a security patrol.

Overall the security situation inside the red zone is extremely poor. A tagger had even left their mark on the fourth story of a badly damaged & dangerous building. One large tag was obviously after the September earthquake, the other next to it though referred to the February shake.

One reason some people have said that we were wrongfully arrested in there was by our proactive security actions were showing up the police as we dominated our area & the locals in the red zone were noticing it(& telling us about it).

We certainly weren't perfect & restrictions initially meant we could not patrol around the most vulnerable building.Therefore we did proactive patrolling on bikes around the edges. We had to ignore those restrictions & enter a major drop zone after a good police patrol who were trying to do their utmost to keep the place secure asked us to stop patrolling one area. Our only option was to take a walk into a drop zone.

Putting up fences all over the place & not manning them doesn't provide security in New Zealand either.

The best option in future disasters in cities in New Zealand is put in good local security patrols(yes there are alot of poor security but it is usually known who are the good security) to patrol say on bikes or on foot in designated areas co ordinated by one group. Not just give it to one company & let them bring in out of town guards. Use security too to man the fences. Again it free up resources.

One thing is locals tend to know the local problems & likely routes in. End of the day it frees up police to concentrate on other tasks. Yes there will be bad eggs but there are in any organization. I know one other security organization had similar problems after catching some looters early on they suddenly become the enemy/suspects. It was we are meant to be here & are helping you. At times it has seemed even now there is more emphasis on those legitimately working there than actual looters.

Another issue that freeing up police will take care off is what was observed in this disaster. They came to help but many of them had never experienced an earthquake little lone the ones Christchurch is getting & like many they were shocked when a good one hit. In fact we called later shakes the attitude adjusters. For many locals it was "here we go again so lets get it over with".

None of this information will help those breaching anymore as it is generally known in Christchurch that claims the cordon is working are not true. In fact when we returned to the red zone after the looting it was the locals who were able to tell us how it happened & which building had been looted. Others in the wider Christchurch community have also been able to tell us details when we had been told to keep quiet about it.

So the red zone secure? Not likely!

It is no wonder so much looting has been discovered. Claims that much of it probably happened in the first few weeks or is mainly by workers are wide of the mark from what I or others have observed.

The easy pickings early on were out in the eastern suburbs.

As one Maori Warden informed us the inner city was more targeted inititially everytime the cordon was reduced. Looters were hitting those premises in the newly opened area, he was catching them making them drop their goods then letting the next police patrol know where the goods were. That also allowed them to start getting eyes on the CBD & where the weaknesses were.

It seems that virtually everyone that wants to knows how insecure the cordon really is except Civil Defence now CERA, the police, the military, Operation Suburb & the new volunteers. It really is a circus!

www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz