Violent Crime Sours Crime Stats - More Predicted In 2001

The latest information from Statistics New Zealand confirms that violent crime is on the way up again and National is blaming the Government's police cut backs for the rise.

"While criminal pond scum continue to bash, rape and mug decent folk, the Government is happy with 300 frontline police vacancies," National's Police Spokesman Tony Ryall said today.

Tony Ryall was commenting on Statistics New Zealand's latest report "Crime in New Zealand" for the year ended 2000.

"What the report shows is that the violent crime rate in New Zealand is rising again after falling during the late 1990s. The trend was going down, now it's going up.

"National predicts that the violent crime rate will rise again this year. While overall crime is coming down thanks to the police's good work in burglary, the violent and sexual crime rate sours the picture.

"After falling for the past few years, robbery is up 12%, grievance assaults are up 8%, serious assaults up 5%, intimidation up 7% and sexual offending up 9%.

"When you have fewer police, you have more crime. This Government has cutback police numbers to a point that we now have 300 vacant frontline positions. Even the police say that the current recruitment drive will only maintain existing numbers," Mr Ryall said.

The 'Crime in New Zealand' report measures the number of offences committed per 1,000 people in the total population. The offence rate, according to Statistics NZ, is the more appropriate measure for comparing levels of crime over time because in many situations the level of offending is affected by the size and composition of the total population. The offence rate shows the incidence of crime relative to population size. The report is available at: http://www.stats.govt.nz/crime

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