The Queenstown Police Station in Camp St where a man is alleged to have jumped on half a dozen patrol cars. Photo / Google Streetview
A man is due to appear in court after allegedly jumping on and damaging six police cars in Queenstown.
A police spokeswoman said the 18-year-old man will appear in the Queenstown District Court today after vehicles were damaged at the Queenstown police station yesterday morning.
He was being charged with eight counts of intentional damage and one of resisting arrest.
The man allegedly jumped on and damaged eight vehicles, before he was taken into custody about 3.20am.
Replacement vehicles were being arranged for the cars requiring repair.
Earlier this year, it was reported almost 9000 police cars have been damaged since 2015 - with a repair bill of more than $24.3 million.
Of those, more than 1000 were intentionally rammed by offenders, and 618 deliberately vandalised.
A further 162 had to be repaired after the driver hit an animal, 2107 after stationary objects were struck and 39 after red lights were "disobeyed".
And 331 vehicles were written off entirely across the country.
A police source told the Herald that the number of people intentionally damaging patrol cars was concerning.
"There is one issue that continues to grow and that is the number of police cars which are being deliberately rammed," he said.
"It has become a major problem and ... seems to be a nationwide problem and clearly a deliberate pattern."
Traffic exiting SH16 via Rosebank and Pātiki road off-ramps is being turned around.