Police are continuing to be highly visible across Auckland forecourts, with frontline staff prioritising visits overnight alongside demand.
Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin says petrol stations in communities right across the region were visited overnight.
“Moving into the weekend, we will continue to be highly visible and providing reassurance to the staff that are working at these sites,” he says.
“Our focus is to conduct these visits at commercial businesses and petrol stations that have 24-hour operations.”
Feedback continues to be positive from those working the night shift.
“We are continuing to respond to this recent spike targeting these businesses,” Detective Inspector Baldwin says.
“We share the community’s dim view of the violence being exhibited in some of these incidents.
“As part of our deployment frontline staff are ensuring we are providing reassurance to these staff who are just doing their jobs.”
Police are also keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity in the community in the small hours.
“We are particularly interested if the public see cars travelling in convoy in these late hours, and we ask them to report this by calling 111 so we can respond appropriately,” Detective Inspector Baldwin says.
Investigations progress, further arrest made
Investigations are continuing into the five incidents at petrol stations earlier this week.
Detective Inspector Baldwin says investigation teams are continuing to make progress on recent incidents in Auckland City district.
“Further warrants were executed by detectives yesterday as part of enquiries into aggravated robberies at the Mt Roskill TAB and Western Springs petrol station.
“No further arrests have been made at this stage, but we are following positive lines of enquiry.”
In Waitematā, detectives are continuing to investigate recent incidents in the west Auckland area.
Police are following lines of enquiry into an aggravated robbery at a Green Bay petrol station on Wednesday morning.
In Counties Manukau, Police have made an arrest for an aggravated robbery in East Tamaki late last month.
The incident occurred in the afternoon of 25 February on Springs Road.
Yesterday, detectives executed search warrants as part of the investigation.
“A 16-year-old male was located at a Manurewa property and was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery,” Detective Inspector Baldwin says.
He is now before the Manukau Youth Court, with investigators making further enquiries to locate two other offenders involved.
