Sex offences Serious criminal offences in Hawke's Bay rose in the past year, but it was because more people were reporting crimes and police systems had improved, police said.
Drug, sex, homicide, abduction and harassment offences were all up - despite Hawke's Bay following a nationwide drop in overall crime.
Crime dropped 2 per cent overall in Napier, Hastings and Gisborne for the 2011 calendar year, New Zealand Police statistics showed yesterday. Recorded thefts, property damage, fraud, public order offences and burglaries decreased in the Eastern Policing Region, but violent and serious offending rose.
Eastern District Police intelligence manager Tony Dewhirst said the increases were "not a bad thing".
"We are reasonably confident a lot of it is changes to police recording practices and the reporting confidence of the public and victims," Mr Dewhirst said.
"Crime that's normally reported by the public there has been a reduction of, such as thefts, and that's pleasing, and it is pleasing to see we have had an increase in crimes considered to be police-discovered.
"Drug offending is not normally reported to police, it is police-discovered, so it really shows how proactive we are being in terms of drug activity."
University of Canterbury Criminologist Greg Newbold said policing changes had made it easier for victims to report sexual crimes, resulting in more prosecutions.
"People are more likely to report sex offending because they get more sympathetic treatment from the courts, so the fact that sex-crime numbers are going up is a good thing," he said.
"It is good simply that more people are coming forward because the more people that come forward to report these types of offences, the likelihood of people committing similar crimes decreases.
"People are more deterred from offending by the likelihood of detection than by the penalty for offending."
Mr Newbold said increases in sophistication, technology, accountability and cost effectiveness also played a part.
Mr Dewhirst acknowledged there were still issues to be addressed in Hawke's Bay communities.
"We have got our issues in this district, we are over-represented in terms of hostile statistics.
"Drugs is one of our focuses at the moment, as is alcohol, organised crime groups, youth, families and road policing," Mr Dewhirst said.
Resources had been put extensively into those areas, as well as changes to recording information that meant minor events were logged and treated as serious incidents. More frontline staff were also on the beat thanks to a crime reporting line and support staff handling paperwork.
Acting Eastern District Commander Superintendent Barry Taylor said "hot spots", were also being targeted in new ways. Police last year introduced Neighbourhood Policing Teams into Maraenui in Napier and Flaxmere in Hastings.
Those initiatives had proven their worth and were making huge inroads into preventing crime, he said.
Nationally, a 4.8 per cent decrease in crime was seen in 2011 compared to 2010 - a 15-year low.