North Harbour Community Patrol has doubled its patrolling. They’ve got a second patrol car on the road now thanks to their major sponsor North Harbour Hyundai, with support from Harcourts Cooper & Co and Benefitz as well as the community – with great efforts from local Bays sisters Erica Stanford and Alexis Poppelbaum.

When most are tucked up in bed, North Harbour Community Patrol (NHCP) volunteers are out on tasked missions from Waitemata Police, looking for suspicious activity or anything out of the ordinary. They help to identify stolen vehicles, patrol liquor ban areas and make sure our young people are having fun while keeping safe.

The North Shore is a huge area for one patrol team to cover - there are 37 suburbs from Okura to Northcote and out to Beach Haven and Albany. It was hugely challenging to effectively patrol the region with just one patrol car.

Last year, NHCP undertook a big fundraising effort to purchase a second patrol car. At the Murrays Bay wharf ‘Birdman’ event in 2020, two of their patrollers – MP Erica Stanford and Hibiscus and Bays Local Board member Alexis Poppelbaum – took to the air with a make-shift patrol car. Yes, they flew to raise money for NHCP!

"It didn’t win any awards for flying distance, but the community generously sponsored us to the tune of $9,000," said Alexis. "We also had a major sponsor North Harbour Hyundai come on board, along with Harcourts Cooper & Co and Benefitz. We want to thank the community and our three incredible sponsors for making our goal a reality, and for doubling our patrol efforts to keep our community safe."

As a Charitable Trust, the NHCP rely entirely on funding from grants and the generosity of the community to keep their patrol efforts going. They have 40 volunteers ranging in age from 21 to 71 and are always recruiting for more. If you can commit to four hours a month (they do both evening and day patrols) they would love to have you as part of the NHCP team.

Benefitz is the publisher of Channel Magazine.

If you are interested then email: nhcommunitypatrol.recruitment@gmail.com or visit www.northharbourcommunitypatrol.org.nz