Police in North among slowest

Police response times to priority-one calls in Northland urban areas are among the slowest in the country.
New figures show that from March to August the average response time for priority-one calls in urban areas was 14 minutes in Northland, the same as in Auckland City.
Only Counties Manukau, with 15 minutes, had a slower response time.
Northland police District Commander Viv Rickard said the figure was the same as for 2004, despite a 43 percent increase in the number of events and the geographically challenging nature of the region.
He noted non-urban response times had been reduced by two minutes to 30 minutes, in line with national targets.
Northland police managed to attend to 65 percent of priority-one calls within 10 minutes and 76 percent of rural callouts within 30 minutes, below the national averages of 68 percent and 84 percent respectively.
Mr Rickard said most Northland police officers came from the region and were committed to making Northland the safest region in the country.
"I can assure you, when you call the Northland police for help, we do care and we will get to you as quickly and safely as possible," he said in a written statement.
Nationally, the average response time for urban areas was 12 minutes, one minute slower than the previous year and 22 minutes for rural areas.
New Zealand police media adviser Rob Lee said police aimed to be at priority-one events within 10 minutes in urban areas, and 30 minutes in rural areas.
However, police had dealt with 11,744 more priority-one calls than for the corresponding period last year.
Priority-one calls involve incidents in which life or property are at risk and range from car accidents on state highways to violent crimes.
Response times are calculated from the time they are classified as a priority to the time a police officer arrives at the scene.
"We count things like (response times to) floods and slips and there have been a lot of floods and slips around the country.
"When you look at in the context of the increase in priority one events I think the police are doing a pretty good job," said Mr Lee.
Deputy Commissioner Steve Long said 111 calls to the police communications centres increased by about 20 percent nationally and so, too, had the number of priority-one events between 2004 and 2005.
From Taupo south the general attendance time was between eight and nine minutes.
North of Taupo the average response time was around 12 to 13 minutes.
The rise in response time appeared to reflect significant increases in population and resulting call demand as well as heavy traffic congestion in the Auckland area in particular, he said.