Even at 89, George Stone likes to play a part in keeping his community safe as he continues to cruise the neighbourhood at night with the Richmond Community Patrol.
After 15 years as a volunteer with community patrol, he has been given a certificate of appreciation for his time over the years to help keep his community safe. He has helped the inebriated get home safely, called for help when someone has collapsed, and assisted with traffic control at vehicle accidents. All aimed at keeping people safe.
“If you are going to live in a place, you’ve got to help in whatever way you can to make that place safer or more friendly,” he says.
The former engineer in the British Army volunteered for community patrol – or neighourhood watch as it was called - when he lived in Britain, before retiring to New Zealand. Now living in Richmond, he has continued that role in his community.
It’s a role that depends on the power of observation and noticing when something is not quite right.
Like the time he was out with a fellow patroller and they noticed a light on in an office in the middle of the night.
Knowing that was unusual, they went to investigate and found someone collapsed inside needing help.
Over the years, his patrol has helped three people who had collapsed, for one reason or another, at night when there were few eyes to find them. He’s been there when a young woman called for assistance because she feared she was being stalked, and he says it’s even about keeping an eye on windows inadvertently left open at business premises.
“You’re there to serve the public and if your night is just getting one drunk chap home, it’s a good deed. There’re all the repercussions of him not getting home.”
Sometimes, he says it’s simply about being a presence on the streets that helps deter crime and being the eyes and ears for the community in the dark of night.
On Saturday, he was given his certificate of appreciation when seven community patrol teams from as far as Blenheim and Hokitika congregated at Saxton Stadium for a training day and get-together.
Tasman team leader, Mike Gill, says it was the first major training day for more than a decade and he has been patrolling Richmond since the patrol’s inception 18 years ago. Until recently, the Richmond patrol has been actively seeking volunteers, but that changed after the alleged murder of Nelson police officer Lyn Fleming in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
“Certainly, what happened to Lyn has been a catalyst to a heap of applications wanting to join patrols. The last few months there’s been quite a few weekend nights we couldn’t get a patrol out because we didn’t have the people to do it. But we’ll be able to have a lot better service now. Even though it’s reasonably quiet around our district, it’s awesome we’ll be able to have patrols out two nights every weekend.”
