Other so-called petty offences have gone by the wayside too, so while the stats might give us an accurate picture in terms of serious crime, they have major limitations when it comes to telling us how well we are really behaving.
It probably tells us something about government statistics as a whole that we are more prepared to accept an increase in criminal offending as accurate than we might be to accept a decrease; the public perception certainly isn't that crime is falling, however well the police, in particular, might be doing their job.
It would certainly be fair to expect that these latest Northland stats won't come as a great surprise to most people.
The year in review produced 646 more burglaries in Northland than the previous year, 524 of them residential, while the number of vehicles taken rose by more than 47 per cent, from 675 to 995.
The number of thefts rose more than 30 per cent, from 736 to 975.
Drug offences fell, although there is no way of knowing whether that is simply a reflection of police effort, as did public disorder.
Northland District Commander Superintendent Russell Le Prou has noted that the increase in reported crime coincided with the introduction of the Crime Reporting Line last year, which he said had made it easier to report historical and non-urgent crimes such as burglary and theft. (He should go easy on using the term non-urgent; clearly a burglary is not in the same street as a life-threatening assault in terms of the required immediacy of the police response, but burglary victims tend to be easily offended by any suggestion that they can wait).
That might or might not be valid.
We don't know how many of the additional burglary and theft complaints were historic, but it seems doubtful that many people would use a new phone line to report old crimes when many, apparently, don't bother reporting new ones because they don't believe the police will respond.
It would also be interesting to know how much use the crime reporting line is getting.
This newspaper gave up trying to promote it when it failed to find anyone within the police in Kaitaia or Whangarei who was able to provide the number.
Meanwhile one of the big falls last year was in sexual offending, although we in the Far North know better than most how one or two prolific offenders can skew that particular statistic, for bad one year and good the next.
Domestic violence rose, but Mr Le Prou made the seemingly valid point that while his officers were attending more incidents they were seeing less serious violent offending.
That would seem to be the experience in Kaitaia, especially of late, where many potentially violent incidents have not gone beyond verbal abuse.
If that is statistically significant, much of the credit could probably go to the police who respond to potential domestic violence perhaps more quickly than ever before, and show some skill in defusing situations before they really get nasty.
But even if reported offending is on the rise in Northland - and why wouldn't it be given the region's on-going social deprivation? - there are more statistics that will be of greater concern to police management, and us.
One of those is that the resolution rate - the number of reported offences that are 'solved' - has fallen from 53.9 per cent, the best in the country, to 43.5 per cent, placing Northland sixth out of 12 police districts.
A small part of that could well be a reflection of the laying of of multiple charges against sexual offenders in the previous year, with a contribution from the increased burglary rate, burglars being notoriously difficult to catch, but there has to be more than that to a fall of almost 20 per cent.
It is difficult not to wonder whether the falling resolution rate, which if memory serves is Northland's worst result in a very long time, has anything to do with the survey released a week ahead of the annual crime stats showing that the lot of a Northland cop was a far from happy one.
Less than one-third of the two-thirds of resident officers who responded to the survey felt they had a common purpose (compared with 60 per cent nationwide), only 45 per cent saw systems and processes as enabling them to do their jobs properly (60 per cent), one-third felt their contribution was valued (51 per cent), and fewer than 20 per cent believed the survey results would change anything.
Mr Le Prou said some work had been done and more was yet to be done.
One would hope so.
Even assuming that the same pressures police are feeling nationally in terms of change, which is never universally popular, in the way they do their job and a new focus on the prevention of crime as opposed to reacting to it are in play here, the region would seem to have some issues that need thorough investigation.
Hopefully the fair and equitable allocation of police resources will be one of them.
It would be fair to say that the average cop takes some delight in arresting criminals, and seeing them get what they deserve.
A resolution rate that has plummeted 20 per cent will not be a source of job satisfaction, and might well be seen as a symptom of some internal malady that needs to be addressed.
This newspaper believes that the Far North is well served by its police, and is aware of how policing has evolved over the last three decades or more. That evolution continues today, but not all change is necessarily good or effective. The trick, as always, is to make use of what does work and to abandon what doesn't, while the community must resist any urge to demand instant results.
Much of what is being done now in Kaitaia, and no doubt everywhere else, will take time to bear fruit, although Kaikohe, in particular, has embraced the invitation to actively support its police force with such alacrity that results are already being seen. If the same positive attitude takes hold elsewhere we will will all feel the change, whatever the statistics might say.
