Offences down, but fight against crime continues

Crime statistics showing a small decline in offending were an encouraging sign, but the Government and Police would not be taking the pressure off criminals, Police Minister Judith Collins said today.

Crime statistics released by Police today reveal that recorded offences per head of population dropped 1.3 percent across the country in the year to 30 June 2010. In the previous year recorded offences per head of population increased by 2.8 percent.

"I am very pleased that recorded crime has levelled off and shown a small decrease," Ms Collins said.

"This is an encouraging sign, but we will not be taking the pressure off criminals.

"Safer communities is one of the Government's top priorities. Criminal offending is like a tax on every New Zealander.

"We've given Police more frontline officers, more tools and tougher laws. Criminals are seeing more blue uniforms, gangs and burglars are being targeted, and the worst, repeat violent offenders will be locked up for longer.

"Police are doing a great job of rolling back the influence of criminals and making our communities safer. But there is still a lot of work to be done."

There were 441,960 recorded offences in the 2009/10 financial year compared to 442,540 the previous year.

A trend in recent years of increasing numbers of violent crimes appears to be flattening. Assaults in public places are trending down and large rises in family violence in recent years were more moderate in 2009/10.

An abnormal spike of 12 unrelated murders in August 2009 contributed to a higher than usual number of murders during the year. However, over a 25 year period, the murder rate remains flat.

Fraud showed the biggest decrease (25.6 percent) while robbery, burglaries, motor vehicle theft, weapons offences and offences against justice were also down.

Police resolved 523 more offences (212,561) to increase the national resolution rate from 47.9 percent to 48.1 percent.