Latest crime stats support focus on burglaries   31 May 2016

Hon Judith Collins

Minister of Police

31 May 2016
Media Statement

Latest crime stats support focus on preventing and investigating burglaries

Preventing and investigating burglaries is a key priority for Police says Police Minister, Judith Collins.

Ms Collins was commenting on the latest monthly crime data released by Statistics New Zealand today which show burglary offences across the country was the major contributing factor to an increase in victimisations accounting for nearly two thirds of the increase.

In the first ten months of this fiscal year (July 2015 to April 2016) Police recorded 10,301 more victimisations than the same period last year, this equates to a 3.2 per cent increase.

Crime has been counted differently since 2014 when Police introduced a new method for collating statistics on crime data; the Recorded Crime Victims Statistics (RCVS) and the Recorded Crime Offender Statistics (RCOS).

The RCVS records victimisations, which are the number of reports received of crimes that have a victim (e.g. assault, burglary, theft, etc.). A victim can be a person or an organisation.

“The RCVS lets Police see which sections of the community are experiencing the most victimisation and ensures Police prioritise staff and resources where it’s most needed.

The victimisation rate has decreased in Auckland City District by 5.8 percent and is also down by 7.9 percent in Wellington. The other ten districts recorded increases.

“One pleasing result in the latest figures is a 12.8 percent fall in the burglary rate for Auckland City. Since February, Police have focused on doing more to prioritise prevention and investigation of burglaries,” Ms Collins says.

Operation Resolve was established by Auckland City Police earlier this year in an effort to target burglars and unresolved burglaries across the Auckland District.

A team of 18 have been working on the Operation which has seen 71 arrests, 32 new burglary charges laid, 24 receiving property charges laid, 18 search warrants executed and 43 arrest warrants actioned.

The crime figures released today shows ten months of comparable data between July and April 2014/15 and the same period 2015/16. In August this year a full two years of data will be available which will provide a more robust data series from which to draw comparisons.

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