KEY POINTS:
The union representing police staff says there aren't enough new sworn police officers being sent to the crime hotspot of Auckland.
The Police Association said violent crime in Counties Manukau had risen 19.3 per cent in 2007 and total reported crime in Auckland City was up 5.3 per cent.
As reported by the Herald yesterday, it was revealed in Parliament that only five of 53 aggravated robberies were solved in Counties Manukau before the fatal shooting of liquor store owner Navtej Singh in June.
Yet only 68 of the first 654 extra police trained under the Government's 1000 extra police promise had gone into the primary response unit in the Auckland area, the association said in its newsletter Police News.
National MP and former policeman Chester Borrows blamed the low solving rate for the aggravated burglaries on a lack of police staff "to do the basics, like checking registration numbers and following up on descriptions of offenders".
He said police sources told him detectives had found basic clues were not followed up because of understaffing.
But Police Minister Annette King yesterday slammed Mr Burrows, saying his comments were "motivated by base political considerations" and that crime in Counties Manukau fell by 3 per cent in 2007, with the resolution rate increasing from 38.7 per cent to 41.8 per cent.
-NZPA
