Press Release

Neighbourhood Support Auckland praises police for work in resolving crime

Kevin Hicks, Chairperson, Neighbourhood Support Auckland.

The increase in police crime resolution rate has been praised by Neighbourhood Support Auckland chairperson, Kevin Hicks. However, he warns against accepting all statistics and commentaries at face value, especially those that try to downplay our high crime rate. “Crime is still a major challenge for our society, justice system and social services and the damage it is doing to people’s lives must not be underestimated. However, we can make a difference if we all play our part”.

“We congratulate the Police on their increase in resolved crime by nearly 10,000 more offences in this past year compared to the previous fiscal year. This takes the national resolution rate for all recorded offences to 47.0 percent from 44.7 the previous year, which represents a real increase in resolved crime even when the very small fall in total crime is taken into account. This can indeed give people some comfort that the police are working hard to respond to their concerns about crime. In the Auckland City district the same trend was seen with approximately 1500 more crimes resolved than in each of the previous two years. Although reported crime has also increased in Auckland City this may reflect increased reporting as a result of initiatives such as the single non-emergency number system, publicity over family violence and the work of community constables and ethnic liaison officers in the field.”

Neighbourhood Support is an organisation which represents the “silent majority” who support the police and the hard work they do. They work closely with community police to reduce crime and the fear of crime by setting up inclusive neighbourhood support groups where all people are welcome and are encouraged to get to know and support their neighbours. By doing this they come to learn that everyone shares the same concerns about crime and that together we can make a difference to each other’s lives.

Kevin says that we can all play a role and that we still have a long way to go before we see large reductions in the crime rate. Particularly disturbing is the family violence situation and intimidation by youth gangs in neighbourhoods and schools, although great progress is being made in some areas with the introduction of zero tolerance policies for this type of intimidation in some areas. “The police are always right behind us when we encourage people to report all crime” he says. He encourages everyone to report crime or suspicious behaviour – phone 111 if the crime is in progress or, in Auckland City, phone 302 6400 and ask to report a crime on the non-emergency line anytime.

Ends

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