Graffiti Control

“Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.” - George L. Kelling 1982

Introduction

The Problem

Graffiti has been an ongoing and arguably growing problem for Manukau City Council (“The Council”). The Council has taken many steps and considerable revenue used in dealing with this repulsive and destructive problem often caused by the same of-fenders.

We acknowledge the work undertaken by the Council in the community and the efforts by MP George Hawkins in Parliament to introduce the Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill on 7 December 2005.

For some time the Council have operated a scheme involving an investigation firm who are contracted to take a pro-active stance in respect to the apprehension of offenders, volume of offending and to gather intelligence on these graffiti offenders, their “tags” and Modus Operandi (“MO”). Paragon is able to offer a fresh ap-proach to solving the problem.

It is well known tagging and graffiti are a huge and on-going problem in Manukau. A Quality of Life in New Zealand’s Eight Largest Cities 2003 Survey revealed Manukau City ranks the lowest in residents’ rating of a sense of pride in the way their city looks, and one of the main reasons for this is related to the graffiti prob-lem in the city.

“This has resulted in the Council spending over 1.6 million dollars in graffiti eradication and community education in the past two years. In 2005/06 the Council budgeted more than $800,000 on graffiti reduction. “1

1 Manukau City Council web site

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Statistics Getting Serious About Graffiti

Broken Windows Theory Client Quotes

“We owe it to the people of Manukau and across the country to get this right. We can’t wait till 2010 to attack graffiti. The Government needs to provide an urgent, proactive and national response to this growing scourge now.”

National MP Mark Blumsky 2006

“Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the win-dows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squat-ters or light fires inside.

Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.”

A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, says Kelling (1982), is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to ac-cumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighbourhood.

The theory thus makes two major claims: 1. Further petty crime and low-level anti-social behaviour will be deterred, and thus 2). Major crime will be prevented. Criticism of the theory has tended to focus only on the latter claim.

The Manukau Beautification Charitable Trust have a help-ful breakdown of graffiti statistics. Their statistics show that tagging is increasing and consistently the worst areas are Mangere, Manurewa and Otara with a collective 10,000 to 12,000 tags per month painted out.

The lowest area for tags is shown to be Botany and Cleve-don with around 500 collective tags painted out.

“Thank you very much for your well documented investiga-tion which made the police involvement in this matter short and sweet.”Detective Sergeant A E RIDLEY CIB Mt Maunganui

“...Pleaded guilty to all charges recommended by you. I note your excellent work and must admit, I do not think I have had an easier arrest!”Const. R S ELLWOOD CIB Otahuhu

“Sincere thanks for the significant part you played in the aggravated robbery of the Wellington armoured van and the loss of 1 million dollars.”P CURSON - Chubb Protective Security

“Congratulations on a job well done in respect of your investigation of the armed robbery of our armoured van containing 375 thousand dollars resulting in the conviction of 7 offenders”P CURSON - Chubb Protective Security

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A New Approach

Paragon will charge a flat fee for its base services with deliverables set and agreed on by both the Council and Paragon. We will charge the Council $9,000.00 per month for our services detailed on page 3. This would equate to 100 man hours per month and may be increased during the course of the contract.

Prosecution files will be additional and based on $500 per file.

Court attendances by our staff will be charged at $90.00 per hour.

All charges are excluding GST.

Consistent ResultsParagon has the commitment, the integrity and the business systems and experi-ence to not only perform, but to perform consistently over time.

This sets us aside from the rest. We are the best. We have the best systems, the best people for growth and have the credibility and track record to get the results, time after time after time.

The Paragon Total Investigation Solution Our solution has the transparency, expertise and accountability to achieve success and cost effectiveness.

The Manukau City Council have put forward a challenge to tackle the destructive problem of graffiti and to take graffiti enforcement seriously.

Paragon has specific experience in helping local government agencies establish a nationwide enforcement team, and has over time crafted an investigation firm that has the scale and systems to handle these types of problems. We are geared for large volumes of investigations to set standards.

One monthly fee with set deliverables that are both achievable and affordable.

There is a reason that Paragon is the “Authority on Investigations”.

Pricing

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2. Reactive Measures Paragon team members will stop and speak to any offenders that we witness in the act of tagging. We will obtain their details and liaise with the police for prosecution. We have experience in dealing with these types of potentially volatile situations and people.

4. Prosecution filesTo assist in prosecution of these offenders we will prepare simple prosecution files for the police to save them time and ensure consistent convictions.

6. Tip Off LineWe will operate and publicise a 0800 confidential tip off line for informants to “dob in a tagger”. These commu-nications would be followed up with prompt reactive investigation.

5. Pro-active Enquiries Paragon will offer training to Council enforcement staff in relation to evidence gathering. Other actions such as involvement and cooperation with all Council employ-ees will give the scheme greater buy-in and “spread”.

Paragon are excited by the opportunity to provide the Manukau City Council with the most cutting edge technology and pro-active and reactive methods to deter taggers in the Manukau Region. There will be one monthly fee and one point of contact for enforcement and evidential matters. Our level of co-operation with the Manukau District Police are at the high-est level. The Council will expect Paragon to perform and we will exceed this expectation. Our services are based on a 24 month contract.

Paragons Services Under the Term of Contract

1. Evidence Gathering We will employ diverse methods of gathering evidence on taggers. These methods will include surveillance, undercover teams, informants, covert CCTV footage and a “bait” vehicle.

3. Tag DatabaseIn concert with the Police Paragon will hold and maintain a database of tags in the Manukau district.

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Our Organisation

Our company is Paragon New Zealand.Com Limited (“Paragon”) see our website at www.paragonnz.com

Our company is governed by a Board of Directors the chairman of which is Bryan Mogridge ONZM. Bryan is already a well regarded businessman with board positions in several listed companies. A nationwide company, we have offices based throughout New Zealand and in Auckland at Clevedon and the North Shore.

Managing Director

The managing director of Paragon is Ron McQuilter JP, CFE, Cert Judicial Studies

Ron McQuilter JP, CFE is in charge of our government and local council clients.

A brief summary of Ron’s background is:

30 years Investigation experience.•

Former Police Officer, Glasgow, Scotland.•

Has conducted investigations worldwide.•

Has conducted numerous investigations for Councils in New Zealand, including work for Risk Pool and your lawyers.•

Has lectured to the government agencies on fraud and enforcement. •

Presenter at New Zealand Insurance Institute fraud forum. •

Accepted by the Auckland High Court as an expert fraud investigator.•

Member of New Zealand Insurance Law Association, New Zealand Insurance Institute, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.•

A three term President of New Zealand Institute of Professional Investigators.•

November 2006, Guest speaker at the personal request from the Police Commissioner at the Police Symposium •

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Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Daniel Thompson-Toresen is Paragons COO. A Clevedon local he has a 19 year history of private investigations and enforcement.

He holds a Master of Science Degree in Security Management from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, February 2000 and a Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE, Austin, Texas, USA, February 1998.

• 19yearsinInvestigationsandSecurityManagement.Expertiseextendstoallareasofbusiness,insurance,industryandgovernment.

• Providesawiderangeofclientservicesintheareasofadministration,planning,management,operationsandfacilitydesign.

• Expertiseincludes;riskassessmentstudiesandaudits,operationalreviews,developmentofpoliciesandprocedures,whitecollarcrimeand fraud countermeasures, employee theft prevention, writing and publications, training programs, event management, incident reviews and litigation support.

Business Development Director

Another Clevedon local, Daniel A. Thompson, CFE, dip Policing is Paragons Business Development Director and has over 33 years in Investigations and Security Management Experience which includes:

• DevelopedandimplementedaNewZealandwideInvestigationservicefortheACC

• AdviserforMAFQual.MeatActcomplianceandprosecutions

• BasicInvestigationTrainingmodulesforMAFmeat.

• InvestigatednumerousfraudmattersandpresentedtrainingsessionstoACCclaimsstaff.

• Developedandimplementedtheinvestigativeprocessforthe(BSSA)AustralianBusinessSoftwareAssociationinassociationwiththe(BSA) Business Software Alliance in the US.

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Activities and experience

Paragon is New Zealand’s largest and only truly nationwide private provider of commercial, government, local body and other specialist investigation and enforcement services.

Although we are a private investigation company, our company principals have been, and still are very much instrumental in leading the industry from the front by pioneering work conducted by private firms for government departments and local bodies In many instances, we have been the first private investigators in New Zealand to work for these agencies.

We have many examples of work for government agencies and the examples below are not exhaustive.

Local Councils

We have and still do conduct assignments for the Manukau City Council as well as many others throughout New Zealand.

You will observe from the following examples that we have performed a vast variety of work for various Councils, including but not limited to:

Household rubbish (illegal dumping, etc...)•

Commercial spill investigations•

Internal theft investigations•

Leaky home investigations•

Complaints against Council Inspectors•

Counterfeit production of rubbish bags•

Threats against Mayor and other staff•

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Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC”)

In 1986, we ran a pilot scheme for the ACC who at that time had no enforcement division.

The scheme was a success and they became the first ever private investigators appointed under the ACC legislation and we are proud that we still hold that contract today.

Department of Justice

In 1988 we were the first private investigators appointed to conduct investigations for the Department of Justice Corporate Fraud Unit. These investigations related to various companies that had gained funds from shareholders.

Our work was directly responsible for the formation of an enforcement unit within the Companies Office and we assisted in the training of staff.

Ministry of Agriculture – Meat (“MAF MEAT”)

In 1992 we ran a pilot scheme investigating breaches against the Meat Act 1981. At that time the work was completed by Meat Inspectors, most of whom had no enforcement experience.

Our successes nationwide were such that MAF Meat had excellent media and we then assisted in the establishment of an in-house investigations unit, train-ing their investigators on enforcement procedures and the rules of evidence.

Crown Law Office

The Crown Law Office had never used a private investigation company until referred to us.

We have since been involved in several assignments, the most highly publicised being the “Lake Alice” enquiry where we acted for the Crown, investigating complaints by former patients.

New Zealand Immigration Service (“NZIS”)

In 2004 we were approached by NZIS and asked to assist with a backlog of Immigration verification files originating from India. At that time there was no formal verification unit at NZIS.

NZIS now have an in-house Central Verification Unit with over 30 staff yet we still receive instructions nationwide and still complete annual projects on their behalf.

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Licensing

As you would expect, all our investigators and support staff are screened personally by us, despite the fact that most are former Police Officers.

We hold a current private investigators licence [Number 700502] under the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act 1974.

We also hold a security guards licence [Number 7001149] under the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act 1974.

This second licence is very important and often overlooked. The fact is that we might be asked to give professional advice or comment in re-spect to the security arrangements or services provided to/by the Council’s subjects. To do so without the proper licence could well expose the Council to a claim.

Referees

Our client base is expansive and we welcome the opportunity to provide referees as to our work, professionalism, cost effectiveness, integrity and reporting.

Conflicts

Paragon has no conflicting interests with the Council.

Should a situation arise where a conflict did occur, we would immediately refer the matter back to the Council giving reasons for the potential conflict and seek an amicable resolution. This said, we have been conducting enforcement work for many years and have yet to be in a conflict situation. Perhaps, because we are enforcement focused.

Professional Indemnity and Public Liability

Paragon has both Professional Indemnity Insurance (cover: $1 million) and Public Liability Insurance (cover: $1 million).

Performance Measures

Our proposal is based on the Council adopting a fresh company to assist in your fight against graffiti.

Accordingly, the most relevant benchmark will be the total cost against results achieved and we see this as part of our regular reviews At any time during our contract period, we would welcome discussion on the opportunity for enhancement in systems between our two organisations which would lead to better outcomes or a reduction in costs.

With regards to service delivery, we believe that there is a substantial opportunity to appoint selected investigators to work with your Council staff. Having regular reviews with your Head Office team, de-briefing outcomes and asking for feedback from Councillors are perhaps just some of the methods by which we will be able to monitor performance.

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PARAGON NEW ZEALAND .COM LIMITED

“The Authority on Investigations”

Proud to have a base in Clevedon

Tel: (09) 377-3655 Fax: (09) 358-0110

www.paragonnz.com