Police union boss Cnris Cahill says crime in the country is worse, while senior minister questions legitimacy of retail data. Photo / George Heard
Police union boss Cnris Cahill says crime in the country is worse, while senior minister questions legitimacy of retail data. Photo / George Heard
New Zealand’s police association boss says retail crime is worsening, but a senior cabinet minister is questioning whether the bulk of retail crime is small-time thefts of “20C lolly bags”.
Police Association president Chris Cahill told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning crime had totally overwhelmed the number of sworn officers.
Cahill said he understood the frustration of the retailers across the country pleading for urgent action.
“Members of the public want to see more police out on the streets actually doing something,” he said.
Titirangi Lotto and Post was targeted by thieves in a ram raid in May. Photo / Hayden Woodward
But senior cabinet minister Megan Woods, who was acting Police Minister earlier this year, questioned the seriousness of these offences.
She had not had time to dig into retail crime data but asked whether the majority of the offences were “kids stealing 20c bag of lollies”.
She said if ram raids were taken out of retail crime data then there had been “over 1000 prosecutions”.
“So in terms of that 45,000, are we talking about the kids stealing a 20c bag of lollies? What is the continuum we are looking at there so I would like to look into that,” Woods told Hosking.
Senior Cabinet Minister Megan Woods questions retail crime data on whether most offences are "kids stealing 20c bag of lollies". Photo / Mark Mitchell
Speaking about the freeze in police numbers, Woods said she had dug out the email in question and she thought it was “pretty much soothing bedtime reading for you in terms of reading it.
“Reminding people that we are continuing to operate in a more fiscally constrained economy and asking people to reduce spending on contractors and consultants and focus on efficiency and productivity and to focus on the core service delivery for police. So I mean this is what we are asking all of our public service to do.
“We are in a fiscally constrained environment and we do have to make sure that we are keeping to those budgets and I think the critical thing is this is not about the front line, it is not about reducing the core police public service and that is the critical thing.”
Businesses such as corner dairy shops and petrol stations have been hit by a plague of raids over the last two years. Photo / Hayden Woodward.
Dairy and Business Owners Group chair Sunny Kaushal said 2022 and 2023 looked really bad in terms of crime.
“It is quite clear going back to the old police operating model and actively policing worked to deter offenders and offending,” he told Hosking.
“In 2015, there was a 50-50 chance of arrest but in 2023 it has flipped to a 97.7 per cent of getting away with it.
“So 98 per cent of those who have committed retail crime get away with it.”
Kaushal said the Labour government’s soft-on-crime approach was not working and there had been suggestions to go back to the old policing model used in 2015.
“Crime does pay for 98 per cent of people who get away with it so it has been a constant pattern and we want to go back to the old system which actually worked half of the time not 2 per cent of the time.”
Kaushal said the government had not given retailers a good enough response.
“It’s only a look into it.
“There’s only three weeks left for the parliament to rise so there is not much policy or action to come.
