Paul Goldsmith Minister of Justice and Nicole McKee Associate Minister of Justice make a retail crime announcement in February.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell confirmed police will respond to shoplifting under $500, after a “poorly-worded” memo caused confusion and concern.
The memo, criticised by Police Commissioner Richard Chambers, set loss thresholds for investigating theft and fraud.
Police would continue to have operational control in how they prioritised responses, but there was a big focus on retail crime.
There will be a police response to shoplifting crimes under the value of $500, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says, after an internal memo described by the country’s top cop as “confusing and unhelpful”.
A police directive sent to staff in March said they’d no longer be investigating allegations of shopliftingbelow $500 – regardless of lines of inquiry.
It prompted calls from the Government’s retail crime group for an urgent meeting with Mitchell and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers, RNZ reported.
From March 26, the police’s File Management Centre was applying “nationally standardised value thresholds” when assessing theft and fraud files, with thresholds of $150 for petrol drive offs, $200 for general theft, $500 for shoplifting, $1000 for fraud (paywave, online, scams etc) and $500 for all other fraud.
“This was an internal memo that was somehow got a hold of through the OIA [and] it’s created a bit of confusion”, Mitchell told Kerre Woodham Mornings.
“I’m trying to clarify … from a Government perspective … all crime is crime and a police response is expected.”
Many incidents of crime are captured on video, including this footage of three women's brazen alleged shoplifting attempt at an Auckland supermarket. During the incident in January a customer had a grocery item thrown at them and a staffer was threatened with a fruit as a failed attempt was made at stealing a trolley full of items. The trio only made off with a 10-pack of Mountain Dew cans, laundry liquid and a pineapple.
He sounded a warning to those who thought they could get away without paying.
“Don’t think that you can go out there and shoplift anything under the value of $500. There will be a police response, especially if the offender is able to be identified [on] CCTV cameras, or [there’s] some sort of hard evidence that police are able to follow up on.”
Police had and would continue to have operational control in how they prioritised their response, but there was a big focus on retail crime, Mitchell said.
“If they’re at a violent domestic where they’ve got victims, then of course they’re gonna have to deal with it. But they’ll always get back to [retailers].
“Yes, we’ve got a tsunami of this coming at us. Yes, police have limited resources, but they do a fantastic job with the resources that they’ve got, and I want to reassure everyone that certainly from a Government perspective, every crime is a crime and deserves a response.”
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told RNZ he’d asked for a reminder to be issued to all district commanders that they should continue to catch offenders wherever possible after the "confusing and unhelpful" memo. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Attention on small and minor crimes could help prevent more serious crime, part of the push to manage stretched police resources away from roles other agencies should be responsible for, he said.
