Police to attend all household burglaries

From today, police will attend every single household burglary. Police Minister Judith Collins has announced the new directive that will target an increase in burglaries in the last year.

"This shows police are serious about tackling burglary and also sends a clear message to offenders," she said.

The move will see burglaries become a "priority offence".

Previously, the property crimes were considered a "volume crime" and not classed as needing immediate response.

"Given the nature of policing there will be occasions where they cannot attend a dwelling burglary for a range of reasons, including adhering to the wishes of the victim," said Collins.

"However, the Commissioner of Police has made his expectations clear. Police have assured me that they continue to make burglary a priority with ongoing work in every district to reduce this crime type while also focusing on increasing resolution rates."

In March, the Herald's Hitting Home series revealed that 164 burglaries went unsolved each day in the year to December 3 - a resolution rate of just 9.3 per cent.

Information supplied to the Herald under the Official Information Act showed the week after the series ran, police were "tasked to prioritise response to burglary".

Hitting Home used exclusive data to reveal that police logged 97,707 burglaries in the 18 months after a new recording system was introduced on July 1, 2014.

The number of burglaries under the new definition increased. After an average of 109 burglaries a day in 2013 and 106 in 2014, the figure for the 18 months to December 31 last year was 178.

At a territorial authority level, Auckland had 34,555 burglaries, followed by Christchurch and Hamilton, which had 8824 and 5232 respectively. Next were Rotorua, Whangarei, Hastings and Wellington.