Assaults and burglaries on the rise

Assaults, burglaries and robberies have gone up in the year to August, latest figures show.

Official crime statistics released today show 12,529 more recorded crime victims than the year before, a 4.8 percent increase.

The number of recorded assaults rose by 8.5 percent to nearly 50,000 cases over the year. Sexual assaults rose by 2.5 percent to more than 5400 cases.

Burglaries went up 15 percent to more than 71,000 cases in the year, which was 9559 more than for the same time the year before.

Robberies also rose 15 percent to 339 cases, the Statistics New Zealand figures showed.

The only falls were in thefts, down by 1 percent and kidnappings, down 5 percent.

The figures don't include drug crime or homicides.

Calls for more police officers

Police Minister Judith Collins said burglaries continued to be the single largest driving factor behind the increased number of victims of crime.

She said it was too soon to say what impact a new police policy to attend 100 percent of burglaries was having on reducing crime.

But she was confident they had the officers required to do the job.

"They have not come to that decision lightly, and they've obviously made that decision knowing exactly what the resourcing is, so I don't believe for a moment they won't be able to meet the goals they've set themselves."

Labour police spokesperson Stuart Nash said, while burglaries were worthy of police attention, a lack of police officers meant there was a risk the policy could come at the expense of investigating violent crime.

"In the last year, there's nearly 50,000 assaults, that's serious. There's nearly 5500 sexual assaults.

"So sure, burglaries are important, but you need to look at the whole picture and ask the question, is our police force sufficiently resourced to meet the expectations of our communities, which is solving all crime, not just burglaries."

Mr Nash questioned Ms Collins' commitment to reducing crime, given there was no plan to increase police numbers over the next four years.

"In the latest workplace survey 55 percent of them said they had too much work-related stress and 60 percent said they're not meeting the promises they make to the public. Crime is increasing and the numbers of police on the ground simply aren't."

Ms Collins said the rise in violent crime could be to do with an increase in reporting, rather than an increase in the amount of violent crime actually happening.

"These are tier one statistics, they are basically Statistics New Zealand taking in raw data from police. So what it doesn't do, it doesn't drill down into exactly what this all means. But I think it is clear that there is an increase in reporting family violence and that's probably a better thing than not reporting it."

Despite her belief that police were adequately resourced, Ms Collins said she had asked Cabinet for additional numbers to be recruited.

A decision on that had not yet been made, she said.

Burglary victim targeted twice in two months

Alaana George's Christchurch home was first burgled in July when thieves stole an X-Box, a PlayStation and a video camera.

Seven weeks later, they came back.

"They took my son's new camera, which he'd had maybe less than two weeks. So I mean, he was absolutely gutted, because he's so into making his wee sort of short movies and stuff and this time they took all of my jewellery."

Police failed to follow up with her when she reported the stolen PlayStation was for sale on Trade Me, or when she asked whether the fingerprints from the two burglaries were from the same person, she said.

"It ... made me sort of lose faith in the police a little bit. I mean surely they could have non-sworn officers that could just send out some information or just contact people to let people know what's actually happening with their burglary."

The second burglary of Ms George's home was one of 6642 that happened in August.