New Zealand Police are giving themselves a big pat on the back after statistics released show that reported crime in New Zealand has reduced, despite a significant increase in the number of murders.
NZ police revealed a 5.2% decrease in national reported crime in their release of the national crime statistics. However, the national number of murders increased by 26.5% from 34 to 43 murders.
Southern District police announced that reported crime in Dunedin-Clutha decreased by 11.6% from 2011, resulting in only 9685 offences in the year to 30 June 2012. Otago Rural and Southland also saw reductions in reported crime of 14.1% and 8.9% respectively, contributing to Southern Districts 11.2% overall reduction. Surprisingly, Canterbury’s crime rate dropped the most out of any province at 11.7%.
The only south island province to go against the trend was Tasman with an increase of 1.5%. Critic speculates this may be in relation to the 54.2% increase in sexual assault and related offences in the area. Auckland also joined this bucking trend by increasing reported crime by 5.4%.
Overall, the National figures for reported crime reduced by 5.2%, making New Zealand a ‘Safer place to live’ with only 394,522 crimes reported. A NZ Herald poll asked viewers if this made them feel safer, however, 64% of the respondents said “not really.”
In Dunedin Clutha, disorderly behavior offences dropped 21.2% (270 fewer offences), which according to police is due to their “proactive approach to policing, especially in the central city.” Dunedin Clutha Area Commander, Inspector Greg Sparrow said, “the majority of assaults were fuelled by alcohol.” It was also stated in the release that Police had been taking “a low tolerance approach to alcohol-related offending.”
Students response to the reduction in Crime in the Dunedin Clutha area didn’t make them feel any safer. One law student told Critic, “It doesn’t count for shit. There’s so much more unreported crime going on that it’s probably only reduced because we’re all too lazy to report it.” Another commerce student said he “didn’t feel safer cause I live in South D.”
Criminals kill each other, crime rate drops
