Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

More than 90 per cent of Bay burglaries unsolved

Morgan Tait
By Morgan Tait
Reporter·NZ Herald·
23 Nov, 2016 06:22 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Less than 10 per cent of burglaries committed in the Bay of Plenty have been solved by police. Photo/file

Less than 10 per cent of burglaries committed in the Bay of Plenty have been solved by police. Photo/file

Less than 10 per cent of burglaries committed in the Bay of Plenty this year have been solved by police.

New data shows that more than 180 burglaries in New Zealand went unsolved each day in the first half of this year.

Resolution rates for the crime fell to just 8.2 per cent for the period from January 1 to June 30, according to data acquired by the Herald under the Official Information Act.

Read more: Sarah Morrison's legacy lives on with widower's tribute

The data showed that there was 36,133 burglaries in that time - with just 3216 solved.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the Bay of Plenty, the resolution rate was just 9.6 per cent. In other areas, no burglaries were solved.

The new figures come after a steady increase in the crimes - and a decrease in the number solved - in the last two years.

After mounting political and public pressure, police changed their approach to dealing with burglaries in August.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The crimes were recatagorised to a higher priority, and a target of officers attending all household burglaries within 24-hours of being reported was introduced.

Police's Prevention Assistant Commissioner Bill Searle said: "Burglary is a serious crime and it's a priority for police, however police acknowledge that there will be times when other serious incidents - such as homicides and serious violence - have to take investigative priority."

Police Minister Judith Collins said it was too early to tell if the new policies were impacting burglary rates but an initial review was due soon.

"Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, burglaries are often a difficult crime to resolve and police are only able to work with the information and evidence they have available to them."

A new recording system for burglaries was introduced on July 1, 2014 - meaning the total number of the crimes logged since then is 133,840.

In March, the Herald's Hitting Home series revealed that 164 burglaries went unsolved each day in the year to December 31, 2015 - a resolution rate of just 9.3 per cent.

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

The numbers

When broken down further, the data showed that the police districts with the lowest rates were Northland and Auckland City with 6.9 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively.

The Southern police district was the best performing with 13.4 per cent, followed by the Eastern region at 12.8 per cent.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Canterbury had a resolution rate of 7.7 per cent; Tasman of 8.3 per cent; Wellington 7.8 per cent; the Central region of 9.5 per cent; Waikato 9.1 per cent; Counties Manukau 8.7 per cent; Waitemata 8.5 per cent and Northland 6.9 per cent.

Data provided to the Herald was broken down to police station level, which revealed more than 30 of the country's 300-plus stations solved none of the crimes.

Burglaries in New Zealand, January 1 to June 30, 2016

• 36,133 burglaries reported

• Only 3216 solved - a resolution rate of just 8.9 per cent

• That is more than 180 per day unsolved

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

• More than 30 of the country's 300-plus stations solved none of the crime

• In the whole of 2015, 164 of the crimes went unsolved each day

• There have been 133,840 burglaries reported to police in the two years since a new recording system was introduced on July 1, 2014.
Source: NZ Police

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

'Staff taking the hit': Workload worries as council slashes jobs

17 Jun 06:00 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'I wept': White Island tragedy doctor’s anguish at child’s death

17 Jun 05:00 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Hot-box' murder: Accused says rival gang bigger issue than patched member's theft

17 Jun 07:00 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'Staff taking the hit': Workload worries as council slashes jobs

'Staff taking the hit': Workload worries as council slashes jobs

17 Jun 06:00 PM

Tauranga City Council is cutting 98 jobs to save $12.3 million and reduce rates.

'I wept': White Island tragedy doctor’s anguish at child’s death

'I wept': White Island tragedy doctor’s anguish at child’s death

17 Jun 05:00 PM
'Hot-box' murder: Accused says rival gang bigger issue than patched member's theft

'Hot-box' murder: Accused says rival gang bigger issue than patched member's theft

17 Jun 07:00 AM
On The Up: Pie-fecta - Pie King's trainees claim top prizes in apprentice showdown

On The Up: Pie-fecta - Pie King's trainees claim top prizes in apprentice showdown

17 Jun 03:00 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP