National blames minister on crime

Poor political leadership of the police force is one of the reasons the public are not reporting crimes, says the National Party.

Law and order spokesman Simon Power said yesterday: "It is little wonder that more and more crimes are going unreported - poor political leadership of the police force has seen public confidence plummet.

"It is no wonder the police had so much trouble under George Hawkins - they spent all their time bogged down doing his work for him."

Mr Hawkins was replaced by former Health Minister Annette King.

"I want an assurance from the new Minister of Police that she will allow the police to get their priorities in order so this dangerous cycle is stopped,"

Mrs King told the Weekend Herald that the frontline police numbers had increased by 1400 since 1999. As part of the confidence and supply agreement with New Zealand First, a further 1000 police would be provided by 2010.

Meanwhile, Newmarket Business Association general manager Cameron Brewer said local police figures showed that overall crime in the past five years in Newmarket had increased by over 20 per cent - "and that's just reported crime".

"Alarmingly" most of the criminal activity was happening in the middle of the day, not the middle of the night as many suspected, he said.

"What worries Newmarket businesses is what will happen when the economy dips and more people get even more desperate and daring."