Bay goes howling mad at full moon - police

ROGER MORONEY
A full moon more often than not results in a full incident log for police in Hawke's Bay, although they aren't yet at the stage of putting more front-line officers on the street when the moon is at its peak.
In England, Sussex police have reinforced their patrol numbers when the moon is full because that's when street crime rises ... although researchers have mixed feelings about the phenomenon.
Research or not, one of the Bay's long-serving officers is in no doubt there is a link between the full moon and "bizarre" and often violent activity.
"I can vouch for that because I've seen it happen," Sergeant Mal Lochrie said.
"You hear the troops talk about it ... they'll say 'uh oh, there's a full moon'," he said.
During the weekend just gone, and under a full moon, police in the region were called to a higher than usual number of domestic incidents.
And while there may not be firm recorded evidence, Mr Lochrie said staff did seem to find themselves attending more incidents involving people with psychiatric issues during times of full moon.
Mr Lochrie said staff went to one such incident in Greenmeadows last night when a woman called to say her husband was suicidal and had driven off about 7.15, taking a hunting rifle with him.
The man, believed to be in his early 60s, returned to his home about 10pm and was spoken to by police who were backed by members of the armed offenders squad. The man was assessed and admitted to Hawke's Bay Hospital's psychiatric unit.
Mr Lochrie said the number of occasions when disorder increased during a time of full moon seemed more than coincidence.
One of his English colleagues, Inspector Andy Parr, would agree.
Mr Parr compared graphs showing times of full moons over a year with graphs showing violent crime.
"There is a trend," he said.
Research on links between the lunar cycle and violent behaviour had tended more toward scepticism when it came to making a connection, although earlier this year Professor Michael Zimecki of the Polish Academy of Sciences reportedly found that a full moon could effect criminal activity.
And in 1998, a three-month psychological study of 1200 inmates at a prison in Leeds revealed a rise in violent incidents during the days either side of the full moon.
In the meantime, many front-line police in Hawke's Bay don't need reports to tell them a full moon often means full cells.