Wednesday 31 August 2016

Burglary tells the real story of crime – Police Association

“While many offence types can fluctuate, burglary figures tend to be a very good litmus test of how much criminal activity is taking place in the community,” Police Association President Greg O’Connor said today.

Mr O’Connor was commenting on the 11.9% increase in the number of burglaries nationwide over the past year, as revealed in official crime statistics released by Statistics New Zealand today.

“While it is pleasing to see that the focus is now on burglaries across the political spectrum, including the recent policy announcement that police are attending all burglaries, the danger is that we do not recognise that burglaries are often a symptom of bigger problems, especially organised crime and drug problems,” Mr O’Connor said.

“The prevalence of methamphetamine, both in the number of seizures and as a factor in crime, shows the need to attack crime across all dimensions. Focusing purely on burglaries may inadvertently cause problems elsewhere if resources are moved away from other areas.

“What is clear is that the public are now becoming concerned that the crime situation is deteriorating, an inevitability after many years of under-investment.

“We are now seeing political parties, including the government, accepting there is a need to increase police numbers. But it cannot wait for an election – this government must find the money now to increase police numbers across the board so that community concerns about crime can be addressed,” Mr O’Connor said.

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