People will be hurt by mis-speaking on crime stats

Serious assaults in Christchurch central are up 13% according to the latest 2009 audited statistics released by Police National headquarters in Wellington. This contrasts with the claim to a 36% reduction in serious assaults made by Bob Parker in June 2009.

“It appears the public was misinformed on crime statistics by the Mayor and the question has to be asked about whether this was inadvertent”, said Darel Hall People’s Choice 2021 candidate for the Shirley-Papanui ward.

“People deserve the true picture of crime in order to evaluate the effectiveness of current policy settings and alternative policy proposals” said Darel Hall

In June 2009 Bob Parker claimed a 36% reduction in serious assaults in the central city within a very narrow time frame from 6pm on Saturday to 7pm Sunday between November 2008 and May 2009. In fact the number of assaults decreased only slightly from 45 to 43 (4%) even in that narrow time frame, not the 36% claimed.

More importantly, an examination of serious assaults across the whole weekend shows an increase from 239 serious assaults in 2008 to 271 serious assaults in 2009 – an increase of 32 or 13% serious assaults in central Christchurch.

The so-called drop in serious assaults was attributed to the City Council introducing the Safe City Officers and the change of the one-way door under the Alcohol Accord from 4am to 3am.

“Our first problem was that the public was told crime was going down when it was going up. Our second problem is that the ‘crime reduction’ was attributed to policies that didn’t reduce crime. So while lower or no quality policies are being followed more people will suffer horrendous injuries because the search for real solutions falters”, said Darel Hall.

“It may well be that some mis-speaking occurred about the crime statistics, I certainly prefer that explanation to the alternatives. Simply put the public has a right to know what is true and what isn’t”, said Darel Hall.

ENDS

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