Christchurch’s Mayor, Phill Mauger, expressed concern about the rising crime rate in the city.

In an interview with Chris Lynch Media, scheduled to be broadcast at 7 PM on Thursday, he acknowledged that the situation was “very alarming” but was hopeful that help was on the way.

Mauger revealed that the government had allocated “$32 million to the council as part of its three waters funding, of which $2 million would be utilised to combat crime.”

The money would be used to “install new CCTV cameras and deploy roving personnel to monitor the city’s streets, including Linwood.”

However, Mauger clarified that “CCTV cameras alone would not solve the issue.”

He emphasised the importance of collaboration and revealed that “we’ve got a number of groups that are working together.”

Mauger was particularly excited about the meeting scheduled for Friday morning, which included “a former police officer who was very high up in the force, now semi-retired and was going to work us to help pull it all together.”

Mauger acknowledged the efforts of the police but emphasised the need for additional support to address the crime rate.

He reassured the public that “people might not think that there’s a lot being done, but I can assure you there’s there’s a lot of people working very hard to make sure that crime doesn’t get out of control.”

Mauger stressed that it was essential to “spread the allocated funds across the city to have the greatest impact.”

He said the council was committed to “use this money to make Christchurch a safe place safer.”