Editorial: Bay's crime on the slide

File photo

Twice a year police release crime statistics, indicating whether reported crime in each policing district has gone up or down.

The latest figures were released on Wednesday and showed that reported crime in the Western Bay of Plenty dropped nearly 11 per cent in the last financial year.

This included a 26.4 per cent reduction in burglary and 10.8 per cent in theft.

Other areas of improvement included robbery and extortion, and property damage.

However, a 200 per cent rise in homicide from one offence in the year to June 2013, to three in the last year was "of concern", police said.

The wider Bay of Plenty District enjoyed the lowest reported crime rate of any district since electronic records began in 1995 with a drop of 11.7 per cent. It would seem we are on a roll.

The cynics will say we shouldn't get too excited - it could just be people are not reporting crime as much as they should, but we don't know this as fact.

Yes, we still have some crime issues in our city - too many dishonest people and too many people beating up their families.

But let's give credit where it's due.

There have been some big improvements during the past year that have helped make our city safer.

The first was national legislation getting rid of legal highs or synthetic cannabis. The number of drug-crazed weirdos around the streets of the central city has definitely dropped.

The other is police having iPads and iPhones to help them more efficiently do their jobs, freeing them up to be more visible.

Tauranga police is packed with people who care. For many it's not just a job and it shows in the results.

I know many people will be happy knowing we have such dedicated officers on the beat.

I hope this downward trend continues.