1 out of 8 break-ins solved

The chances of having a burglary solved in Northland is one in eight.

Latest statistics show there were 3225 unlawful entry with intent cases reported to police in Northland for the year ending June 2015, and of those 383 were successfully investigated by police.

That was an 11.9 per cent success rate but was better than Auckland where 7.2 per cent were solved, Waitemata 8 per cent and Counties Manukau with 9.9 per cent.

Other regions who did not fare much better were Waikato 11.5 per cent, Wellington 11.9 per cent and Canterbury 11.9 per cent.

The figures were scrutinised before Parliament's law and order select committee this month with Commissioner Mike Bush being grilled.

Northland Police District Commander Superintendent Russell Le Prou said a combination of police teams enable police to target known burglars and burglary hotspots.

Every day police leaders in the district met to discuss the individuals and hotspots, and deployed staff accordingly.

Staff were tasked to the reported burglaries to see if any inquiries could be carried out.

Mr Le Prou said victims were contacted by police via phone or letter and if there was enough evidence at the scene a specialist crime scene officer would attend to collect forensic evidence.

"As always, police must continually balance and prioritise its resources into areas where they are most needed, with a focus on crimes which cause the most harm in our communities such as child sexual assault, family violence incidents, assaults and, of course, dishonesty," Mr Le Prou said.

"We always strive to improve our service to the public through preventing crime in the first place and responding to and investigating crime in order to catch and hold offenders to account."

Northland's resolution rates for sexual assaults were second best in the country with 37.2 per cent, just behind the Eastern police district who topped the statistics by successfully investigating 39.9 per cent of cases.

High-profile cases in Northland have included James Parker, Daniel Taylor and James Sanders.

"The fact that we have resolved these cases and held the offenders to account hopefully provides reassurance to victims and the community that we take this type of crime seriously and will investigate it rigorously," Mr Le Prou said.

Commissioner Mike Bush said police officers in all districts were focused on improving the burglary resolution rates - but it was also important to realise that the number of break-ins was coming down.

"The first priority is that burglaries reduce. And if you look at dwelling burglaries - where someone does actually break into your house, the number of those burglaries continues to decrease.

"But we would like to resolve more of those burglaries."