The Government will set up an inquiry into crime statistics if it is not satisfied police have cleaned up the mistakes in South Auckland, where they wrongly downgraded about 500 burglaries over three years.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English was happy to trumpet a fall in crime statistics yesterday, despite those statistics coming under intense scrutiny following the police investigation in Counties Manukau.
The Better Public Service targets, released yesterday, showed a 16 per cent fall in total crime, and a 30 per cent fall in Youth Court appearances - measured against June 2011 levels. These were already ahead of 2017 targets of a 15 per cent drop in crime, and a 25 per cent fall in youth crime. Other areas were on track, including an 11 per cent fall in violent crime.
The report, by the State Services Commission, comes a week after it was revealed Counties Manukau police wrongly changed burglaries to other offences or incidents, which do not count towards crime statistics. Police say spot audits are now in place to ensure statistical integrity, but they have not revealed any detail of the audits.
"We can talk to the minister [of police], but if there is a need to follow up, then they'll be followed up," Mr English said. "If there is a need for independent auditing or assessment of it, then we'd certainly do that."
