Police statistics 'accurate'

Police crime statistics are audited and are an accurate reflection of what is happening in the community, Assistant Commissioner Howard Broad said yesterday.

Police did a series of checks through the process of recording crime, and were confident their figures were fit to be used, he said.

Mr Broad said while mistakes were made, they were few and would have a minimal impact on the statistics.

Police have targeted particular areas of offending, and where resources are dedicated to that - such as reducing the road toll - an impact is noticeable.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said one of the problems of tagged funding meant inflexibility in the use of resources.

However, he said simply flicking resources from one area to another would not reduce crime overall, and could just reverse improvements in traffic safety and lowering high-volume crime.

The latter, which can involve offences such as burglaries, car conversions and thefts, had been tackled by diverting resources from front-line policing.

Mr O'Connor cited the Government's investment in 240 more traffic cars, without a parallel investment in supporting resources like communications.

Mr Broad said police had been using essentially the same system for recording crime since the mid-1970s.

An offence was counted if it was reported and if an officer recorded it.