Homicides were down more than a third, and thefts and drug offences dropped throughout the Eastern District last year.
But sex offending, robberies and burglaries were all up in what appears to be a mixed bag of results in the 2010 crime statistics, released yesterday.
In the Eastern District, which takes in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, recorded offences were up by 0.5 per cent over 2009.
At the national level, recorded offences dropped 5.6 per cent, or 25,060 in total - although when the rise in population was taken into account the figure was upped to 6.7 per cent per head of population.
Bay and Gisborne figures represented a drop of 0.3 per cent in recorded offences per head of population.
It was a figure Eastern District Commander Superintendent Sam Hoyle said was pleasing and staff could be proud of their work.
"Strategies and policies taken at a national, district and area level are continuing to make a positive difference in our communities," Mr Hoyle said.
However, Eastern was the only district in the country not to record a decrease. In the Eastern District last year, theft and related offences made up more than a quarter of all recorded crime, with 6821 incidents.
Burglaries made up the second-highest percentage of all crime in the region, with 15.3 per cent.
Last year, 3922 burglaries were reported. In 2009 the figure was 3313 while in 2000 it stood at 3487.
There were 187 recorded sexual assaults last year, with 134 in 2009 and 146 in 2000.
Acts intended to cause injury totalled 3430, while robbery and extortion figures ended for 2010 at 164, up on the previous year.
There were five homicides, all solved, in the Eastern District last year, well down on 18 in 2009.
Drug offences fell by 27.3 per cent from 1595 in 2009 to 1159.
The biggest drops in offending were reported in Waitemata, Auckland City and Tasman - something Police Association president Greg O'Connor put down to a "massive boost" in police resources.
Much of the increase in resourcing was in Auckland and Counties-Manukau where there are 300 more police on the beat than there were in 2009.
The overall national figures, showing a fall in reported crime, drew opposing reactions from Rethinking Crime and Punishment and the National Network of Stopping Violence.
Rethinking Crime and Punishment's Kim Workman said the drop was more likely to be a public reluctance to report crime to police, rather than police strategies and staffing.
Many people, said Ms Workman, believed police could not, or would not do anything to help - or wanted to keep an incident private.
Brian Gardner from Stopping Violence said the figures, particularly in family violence incidence, confirmed a three-year trend where more people were prepared to stand up and report something.
Killings down, sex crimes up
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