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Southland Crime Drops Further by 10.4%

Monday 2 April 2012, 2:44PM

By New Zealand Police

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SOUTHLAND

The Southland Policing Area has continued to achieve positive results with an impressive 10.4% crime reduction for the 2011 calendar year and a 58.6% resolution rate.

The number of recorded offences dropped from 8,790 in 2010 to 7,874 in 2011.

Area Commander Inspector Lane Todd says the latest crime reductions continue to build on the positive results for the Southland community for the last three years. Together with this year's reduction of 10.4% and the reduction of 12.2% in 2010, the reduction over the past two years has been 21.4%, or 2,100 less offences.

The area has now embedded a proactive policing model, incorporating a whole-of-policing approach in identifying and responding to known offenders and hot locations of crime. The recently announced Prevention First police operating strategy will look to enhance the results further, specifically in rural areas.

Inspector Todd praised the work of his team and key partnerships with Maori wardens, community patrols and Neighbourhood Watch, as significant contributing factors to achieving the positive results for the Southland community.

"The results achieved over the last three years are outstanding and the Police team can quite rightly be very proud. The results are also a credit to the hundreds of voluntary hours put in by the Maori wardens, community patrols and Neighbourhood Watch, who are now well-established working within the wider Police team," he said.

For the Southland Area, the decrease in crime in 2011 means 916 fewer offences which equates to fewer victims and safer communities.

"The reduced licensed premises hours in the Invercargill CBD continues to have a positive impact with an overall reduction of 42% of total offending in the CBD, including disorderly behaviour, violence and intentional damage," said Inspector Todd.

Theft and related offences - dropped by 11.1% (2279 down to 2026) while burglary offences also dropped by 6.5% (842 down to 787) from the previous year. These offences account for about 35% of all recorded crime in Southland.

Property damage decreased by 12.4% (1675 down to 1468), and public order offences such as disorderly or offensive conduct dropped by 15.2% (1102 down to 935).

Illicit drug offences decreased by 24.8% (648 to 487).

Inspector Todd said the proactive policing focus will continue with the recent introduction of the national Prevention First operating strategy and the South Invercargill neighbourhood policing team targeting key risk areas.

"It's all about making our communities safer through prevention and community safety strategies," he said.

Overall the Southern Police District achieved a further 13.1% decrease in reported crime in the calendar year to 31 December 2011, following on from a 7.6% decrease in 2010.

"Obviously I am very pleased with these latest results. They provide further validation of the transformational change Southern District has undergone over the last three years. The most pleasing aspect is that there are over 11000 fewer victims in our communities than there were 15 years ago," said Southern District Commander, Superintendent Bob Burns.

"We have undergone some significant change to move us from a traditional reactive style of policing to one that is far more proactive in addressing short, medium and long term crime problems. Change is never easy, however, Southern District Police staff have proved to be extremely flexible in seizing the opportunities change has provided and together with key community partnerships, produced another year of outstanding results."

"The recently launched New Zealand Police operating strategy of Prevention First will help us to not only build on these gains but to make them sustainable. Already Southern is a safer place to live and work and I am confident we will make it even safer in the coming year."