New community patrol has 1980s origins

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By Julia Wade

Labour Weekend marked the official launch of Mangawhai’s new community patrol (CP), a posse of volunteers who keep a lookout for suspicious behaviour after the sun goes down. However the newly formed CP, which has been training and active since September, are not the first to have eyes on the area’s streets after nightfall.

Back in the day when a trip to Mangawhai meant negotiating metal roads, Europa was the reigning petrol station, students at the local school barely numbered 100 and the population was approximately 1300 with no residential police officer, crime was still an ongoing concern.

Residents and business owners became fed up with the growing spate of burglaries in the late 1980’s and, with the nearest police station in Wellsford or Maungaturoto, took it upon themselves to protect their own community by forming a night patrol, the ‘Nightowls’.

Long term residents for more than 30 years, Gaye and Stuart Burt, were part of the founding crew who took to the streets to keep an eye out for trouble makers.

“We had no rules and regulations to follow… no sponsors and we did no fundraising,” Gaye says. “People just used their own vehicles and petrol, but locals and out-of-towners would contribute to running costs.”

For more than a decade, a dedicated team of roughly 20 volunteers teamed up in pairs, patrolling the roads between the surf beach to the village shops seven nights a week, on split shifts, 11pm-2am and 2am to 5am. Similar to today’s patrols, dodgy activity and car registrations were reported back to police although via home landlines, with the 90’s ‘brick’ mobile phones introduced at a later date. Movements of suspicious vehicles in the neighbourhoods were also tracked along the network of patroller’s homes.

“It was a bit cloak and dagger, following cars without our lights on to remain undetected… and being out in all weathers as it seemed winter and heavy storms almost guaranteed the burglars would strike,” Gaye says. “But also very satisfying and rewarding when our reports led to police apprehending suspects. We all noticed a reduction in thefts.”

The Nightowls assisted police solving a variety of crimes including a theft of computers from Mangawhai school and one incident involving stolen poultry.

“While on the earlier shift, my mate Leo Butler and I discovered a trolley of frozen chickens outside the Markwick’s store, now the Village Four Square,” Stuart says. “We found the car, pulled the distributor cap off to immobilise it and waited for Henderson Police to come with dogs. We waited by the car for over an hour, talking about the thief and when the police arrived, the dog took a few sniffs and immediately pounced on the perp who had been hiding a few feet behind us in the long grass all along, too scared to move.”

Gaye was also the driving force behind Mangawhai securing its first residential police officer, Constable Graham Gough in 1991, after presenting a petition of 350 local signatures to Parliament.

“Kaipara’s Mayor, the late Peter Brown came with me and police spokesperson John Banks also supported us, sticking to his word that if National got elected he would see we get an officer,” Gaye says. “We had a big ceremony when Gough arrived, held at the new station which used to be the old post office.”

Gough says he suggested a change of name as another town further south were calling their new patrol the ‘Nightowls,’ and the apt name of ‘Moreporks’ was adopted.

There is also a possibility that CPs, now nationwide, may have originated from the Nightowls with both Gaye and Gough saying they were not aware of other patrols operating in the country. Other districts soon began to initiate teams based on the Mangawhai group including Wellsford and even towns as far away as Thames.

The Moreporks were still operating in 2001, according to Gough’s ‘Mr Plod’ column in the Memo, however the patrol’s nightly excursions slowly began to dwindle, the Senior Constable says.

“I think it got a bit taxing after a while as a lot of them also worked,” Gough says. “They did a great job noting anything suspicious but it seems the shifts may also have got a bit tedious for them too. I remember I started to receive numerous unusual reports… about how many rabbits they had spotted in the night…”
 

Police minister John Banks, Gaye Burt and Constable Graham Gough at the celebration in December 1991 to welcome Mangawhai’s first residential police officer.

 

Patrol members from 30 years ago, Gaye and Stuart Burt can still remember it being a bit 'cloak and dagger' – reporting dodgy activity, helping to catch crims, and sometimes counting sheep.
 

“The dog took a few sniffs and immediately pounced on the perp who had been hiding a few feet behind us in the long grass all along, too scared to move.”

- Stuart Burt

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