Police involved in 88 crashes in a year in Southern district

Police vehicles have been involved in 88 crashes in the Southern police district in the past year.

The cost of repairing the vehicles was $316,177.99.

Nationwide, police vehicles were involved in a total of 1477 crashes between November 1, 2019, and October 31 this year, figures released under the Official Information Act show.

In that period, $3,663,002.07 was spent on repairing vehicles damaged in crashes.

In the past five years, NZ Police spent more than $20 million fixing vehicles damaged in crashes.

A police spokeswoman said any crash involving a police car was concerning, and every effort was made to understand the causes and circumstances of such crashes.

"It is important to point out that the nature of our work sometimes results in a higher number of crashes than other organisations, given the time spent on the roads. However, our staff are required to maintain a high standard of driving.

"As part of our crash investigations we are continually looking for lessons learnt and ways to improve safety and mitigate risk."

Police vehicles were involved nationwide in a total of 1477 crashes between November 1, 2019 and October 31 this year. Photo / NZ Herald

The spokeswoman said several requirements had to be met after a police vehicle was involved in a crash, but more details on those requirements had to be requested under the Official Information Act.

Each police district had a budget for operational requirements, which included a budget to cover vehicle costs such as registrations, warrants of fitness, fuel and servicing and maintenance.

Thirty-five police officers have been prosecuted for crashes involving police vehicles in the past five years.

Counties Manukau police had the most crashes this year, at 187. They were followed by Canterbury with 155, and Waitemata and Wellington, which both had 151.

The Investigations Support: Upper North team had the fewest crashes, with two.

Canterbury police spent the most on fixing damaged police cars this year, forking out $573,288.22.

That was followed by Auckland City, which spent $435,118.06.

The numbers

Crashes involving police cars nationwide:

2015-16: 1312
2016-17: 1336
2017-18: 1436
2018-19: 1572
2019-20: 1477