Police slower to follow up burglaries

By ANNE BESTON

Police are taking longer to respond to burglaries in some areas of Auckland, and South Auckland has one of the worst response rates.

Counties-Manukau police took more than 24 hours to respond to burglary complaints in August, compared with just over 15 hours in August last year.

In North Shore and Waitakere, police took 12 hours to respond to burglaries in August, two hours longer than a year ago.

Although some response times in some regions, such as Auckland central, are down, the decrease is from 25 hours to almost 17 hours.

The figures were released by Police Minister George Hawkins in response to a written parliamentary question from National Party police spokesman Tony Ryall.

Mr Ryall said the figures showed longer response times in most regions and fewer burglaries being solved.

When he took on the Police Minister's job after the 1999 election, Mr Hawkins set a response time of 24 hours for 97 per cent of burglaries.

In June 2000, a $14 million push to bring down the burglary rate began.

Mr Ryall said more police were needed, and that there had been a move away from community policing. But Mr Hawkins said 22 extra officers would be on the beat in Auckland by today, eight destined for Counties-Manukau and six for North Shore-Waitakere.

A further 76 officers would be on duty in Auckland by Christmas.

The 97 per cent target had been achieved in most places.

The commander of North Shore-Waitakere-Rodney police, Superintendent Roger Carson, would not comment yesterday on the burglary response times. He said he would not discuss the figures on a Sunday.