Nationally, robberies were up 12 per cent, burglaries 12 per cent, and assaults by more than 3000, he said, adding: "These new statistics make grim reading.
"They show a need for a return to traditional and community policing," he said.
"It's time the minister stood up for our hard-working police officers. There must be enough police officers to keep our communities safe."
Police in Hawke's Bay are dealing with several unsolved robbery inquiries from the past two months, but made a breakthrough with the latest yesterday after an abandoned - apparently borrowed - car used in the Sunday's raid was found.
The car, a white Honda Odyssey (registration EUE417) was found parked in the Lodge Rd-to-Geddis Ave section of Hillary Cres in suburban Maraenui, after a Crimestoppers call from a member of the public.
Detective Sergeant Glenn Restieaux, of Hawke's Bay CIB, said the vehicle was registered to a man in hospital in Wellington and family members were not implicated in the robbery.
Mr Restieaux said police needed to know who was using the vehicle on Sunday when the robbery of the Meeanee Store, in Meeanee Rd, happened about 10.30am.
Police want to know when the car may have been parked in the street, and about people disposing of the stolen cigarettes and tobacco, along with a small amount of cash.
It was also possible offenders had discarded some of their clothing, including beanies or other masks with eyeholes.
All three, one with a hammer and another with a knife, were dressed in black - "from head to toe", Mr Restieaux said.
While the female shop attendant who was confronted by the trio believed at least one was female, police yesterday were not assuming anything about the robbers.
The raid came amid growing police concerns about robberies in Hawke's Bay, the possibility that several people or groups could be involved and that there seemed little to link the robberies apart from hard-times, and the types of offences some young people commit for minimal gain compared with the possible jail time.
Police are investigating possible links between the robberies of Hastings bars Zabeel's, about 9.30 on Tuesday morning, June 7, and the Horse and Hound, about 10.30pm on Saturday, July 2. Both featured on the TV programme Police Ten 7 last week.
Police are investigating information supplied to police as a result of appeals on the programme.
Other robberies were early on the night of July 8, when a person appearing to be holding a weapon concealed under a cloth entered the Te Awa Dairy, Napier; an early-Thursday street-mugging in Raffles St, Napier, about 30 hours earlier, when a man was attacked by a young man wielding a skateboard and was robbed of a cellphone and his wallet; and the robbery of Waipawa's Four Square superette on Monday night, June 6.
