‘Gaslighting’: National cries foul over Labour ad claiming 65 per cent drop in ram-raids

National is accusing Labour of “gaslighting” New Zealanders after it published an advertisement claiming ram-raids are down 65 per cent.

It comes as the Government is expected to announce whether it plans to add funding to the police’s $6 million Retail Crime Prevention Programme, which is understood to have been used up.

On April 7, Labour’s Facebook and Instagram pages featured the ad, which simply said “Ram raids are down 65%” in big block letters against a backdrop of police lights.

It was accompanied by a message which said the party’s “crackdown on retail crime” had led to a “big decline in ram-raids across the country”.

The ad appeared on Facebook and Instagram earlier this month.

Several people commenting on the social media posts doubted the claim, with some requesting to know how the 65 per cent drop was determined.

The percentage decrease was calculated using police data on monthly ram-raids.

Labour had compared the number from August last year (116) with February this year (41), which was a 64.7 per cent decrease.

However, National Party police spokesman Mark Mitchell questioned whether that fairly represented how often ram-raids were occurring.

“[Labour] cherry-pick the numbers,” he told the Herald.

“That’s not a way to record whether or not the trends [are] rising or dropping.

“They’re just out there gaslighting people.”

National police spokesman Mark Mitchell.

Mitchell said a better way to use the data would be to compare February last year with February this year, to see the trend over 12 months.

According to the same police data, there were 53 ram-raid incidents in February, 2022.

That came to a decrease of 22.6 per cent over 12 months.

The number for August (116) was the highest monthly total by far in 2022 - 31 more than the second-highest in September.

Around that time, the Government funded several programmes and community initiatives designed to support offending youth away from crime and into education or work.

Since August, only one month had been higher than the previous, and that was only by one incident. In January this year, there were 57 ram-raid incidents.

The Herald has previously reported how ram-raid data could be politicised and could also be inaccurate depending on when data was published.

Police Minister Ginny Andersen. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Police Minister Ginny Andersen said in a statement that the decline didn’t mean she was pleased with the number of ram-raids in February.

“41 is too many – and I want to see that number continue to keep coming down.”

In May last year, following a spate of ram-raids, the Government announced the $6m Retail Crime Prevention Fund - later rebranded as a programme - which would assist small retailers with security upgrades after they had suffered a ram-raid.

The Herald understood that the fund had almost been emptied.

Andersen said a priority of hers was to support the victims of retail crime and said: “There will be more to say on this soon.”

Mitchell said he believed more money should be committed to the programme to continue supporting retailers.

After the fatal stabbing of Auckland dairy worker Janak Patel, the Government announced small retailers who felt at risk could apply for up to $4000 to go towards installing a fog cannon, a scheme run by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that contained about $7.5m.

As of April 3, MBIE had paid out more than $500,000 and had promised almost a further $2.5m to other applicants.

Recent police data revealed how often youth were found to be ram-raid offenders. Almost all (36) of this year’s ram-raids (41) were committed by youths.

In 2022, 343 of 465 ram-raids were done by youths, compared with 223 of 286 in 2021.

The Government’s Kotahi te Whakaaro programme, which is operational in Auckland and aims to intervene within 24 hours after a crime, had led to only 27 of the 147 children involved re-offending.