KEY POINTS:
You are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime in Counties Manukau but more likely to have your car stolen and your home burgled in Auckland City.
Crime statistics for 2007 which were released by police this week, show some variations in the types of crimes being reported in the wider Auckland area's three police districts, Auckland City, Waitemata and Counties Manukau.
Both Counties Manukau and Waitemata recorded overall drops in crime of 3 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.
But Auckland's crime rose by 5.3 per cent, with 2893 more offences than 2006. More crimes per head of population are occurring in the inner city with 57,187 recorded offences last year - or 6.5 crimes every hour.
However, crimes are more likely to occur in large city areas which have a proportionally lower base population and a higher influx of people.
Acting Auckland City District Commander Superintendent Brett England said he was confident the increase was due in part to positive policing initiatives in the district which included more efficient call-taking and investigating.
"Offences such as burglary, theft from cars and property damage are being dealt with much more efficiently by our staff and consequently members of the public have become more inclined to contact police when confronted by crime," he said.
Police are largely attributing a national 12.3 per cent increase in violent crime to increased awareness and reporting of family violence.
Superintendent Viv Rickard, head of the Waitemata police district which comprises the North Shore, Waitakere and Rodney, said overall crime in his area had dropped for two consecutive years and he was proud of the efforts of his staff. Mr Rickard was also pleased his district had the highest resolution rate (catching offenders) for any metropolitan area in New Zealand, with a 52.2 per cent chance of catching offenders.
Auckland and Counties Manukau resolution rates are on 37.3 per cent and 41.8 per cent respectively and, like Waitemata, have been resolving more crimes each year since 2005.
North Shore area commander Inspector Les Paterson said his patch was the first area since accurate records began to drop below 600 crimes per 10,000 people, with 569 crimes for every 10,000 people.
Mr Paterson said that meant people were less likely to become the victim of crimes on the North Shore than anywhere else in the country, with a 9.9 per cent crime reduction to 12,540 offences. Mirroring a national trend, violence had increased in the three Auckland districts, with Counties Manukau recording the highest rise of 1434 more offences.
Counties Manukau district commander Superintendent Steve Shortland said 52.9 per cent of all violent offences were family violence callouts, which he said was due to education and prevention campaigns.
