By LOUISA CLEAVE and NZPA
The number of calls to police to report a burglary or car theft dropped by up to 50 per cent in the past year.
Police yesterday released a survey of 300 callers to its three communications centres, carried out by research company ACNielsen in May this year.
Respondents who said they phoned police to report a household theft or burglary were down from 13 per cent in 2003 to 7 per cent this year.
Those who rang about a vehicle theft or burglary also dropped, from 12 per cent to 6 per cent.
The most common reason to call police was to report suspicious or disorderly behaviour and traffic incidents, the survey showed.
Reports of suspicious or disorderly behaviour were up from 17 per cent in 2003 to 28 per cent this year.
The three centres handled 495,989 111 calls and 943,627 non-emergency calls.
The survey found 93 per cent of people believed the police response to their call was "excellent, very good or good".
Calls to police drop 50pc
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