Press Release – New Zealand Labour Party
The increase in reported crime in Auckland city should be a major concern to the Government, Labour’s Police spokesperson Kris Faafoi said today.

“An overall drop in reported crime is to be welcomed but we cannot ignore the fact that our busiest and most populated city has seen an increase in total crime of 5.4 per cent,” Kris Faafoi said.

“This continues a trend in Auckland where offending in areas such as car break-ins has been increasing.

“Thefts have continued to rise in the region, this year by over three per cent.

“Drug offences in central Auckland have also risen by nearly 20 per cent and public disorder offences have gone up by 46.3 per cent.

“One has to ask whether central Auckland is a safer place.

“Reduced crime rates in other areas are welcome but the pressure on front line policing continues in the face of budget cuts which are yet to be fully realised on the beat.

“Over 100 back office redundancies which are imminent will see more cops at their computers filing paperwork than being out on patrol. That is the reality of Anne Tolley’s Police budget cuts this year.

“I welcome Anne Tolley’s goal of wanting to reduce crime by 15 per cent, it just begs the question – why is she building another private prison?”

News from NZ Police
Burglaries and sexual assaults across Auckland City District have dropped in the fiscal year to June 2012. Official crime statistics for the 2011 – 2012 fiscal year released today show burglaries have dropped by 3.3 percent on the previous year, while sexual assault and related offences are down by 15.5 percent and abduction, harassment and other related offences are down by 9.8 percent.

The Eastern Auckland Area has seen a 7.5 percent reduction in recorded crime during the same period.

Nearly half of Auckland City District’s 54,351 recorded criminal offences in the 2011- 2012 fiscal year were thefts or related offences. A further 15.9 per cent can be categorised as unlawful entry with intent, burglary or breaking and entering.

Public order offences were up by just over 46 per cent to 6,243 in the same period. This was mainly the result of more Police patrolling in and around the city during the Rugby World Cup tournament which in turn resulted in greater detection and intervention levels of these offences.

The number of recorded fraud offences continues to drop – 126 in the period – and this has been put down to continued improvement of bank practises when it comes to delivering credit cards to customers, as well as an overall reduction in the use of cheque books.

Additionally, while banks are heavily involved in investigating internet and other forms of online fraud, such matters generally don’t involve Police as most of this type of offending occurs overseas.

The number of recorded illicit drug offences also went up in the period – from 1,527 to 1,817 – and is largely due to Police more proactively focusing on vehicles being driven from known drug dealing locations as well as larger scale detection operations that were carried out by what was formerly AMCOS and which involved several city offenders.

Auckland City District has engaged with several media outlets on the specific topic of prevention of property crime which has recently culminated in a five-day feature series in the new-look New Zealand Herald. A district Facebook profile has also been added to the mix of communication tools that staff are using to convey prevention messages and advice.