'New drugs' linked to robbery surge

An increase in drug crime involving substances like pure methamphetamine is being linked to a corresponding surge in robberies.

Police statistics released yesterday show offences for "new drugs" - which include P, amphetamines and ecstasy - rose 8.1 per cent in the year to June 30.

Overall, recorded crime dropped 7.1 per cent, from 426,169 to 396,018 offences, with 44.2 per cent of the offending resolved by way of police warning, caution or prosecution.

The country's 12 police districts all showed a fall in recorded crime.

But robbery bucked the trend in many districts and overall increased by an average of 18.3 per cent.

Robbery was up 54 per cent in Counties Manukau (from 275 to 424 recorded offences); 27 per cent in Northland (59 to 75); 20 per cent in Waikato (111 to 133) and 29 per cent in the Bay of Plenty (106 to 137).

Commissioner Rob Robinson said some of the rise could be linked to P use. However, he said street robberies such as hand-bag snatching by juveniles had pushed up the robbery statistics.

"Some of these numbers will be a symptom of [P use] but when I quizzed the staff earlier in the week they also raised the bag-snatching and street robbery aspect as being a significant part of those [robbery] numbers."

National's law and order spokesman Tony Ryall linked the 18.3 per cent national increase in robberies to "methamphetamine addictions".

Police spoken to by the Herald have warned of a rise in robbery statistics because of P use and the cost of feeding addiction.

Mr Ryall also claimed the falling crime rate was the result of victims not reporting crimes such as theft, car break-ins and car conversions.

But Mr Robinson dismissed the claims, saying independent research showed people were "reasonably constant" in whether they report crime.

"The trends we continue to report are real trends and they're not simply a reporting anomaly."

There were 45 murders throughout the country in the 12 months to June compared with 46 the previous year.

Sexual offences, which are consistently under-reported, increased by 0.3 per cent to a total 3187 recorded offences.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said police had done well "with the stretched resources they have".

Total recorded crime was down 1.4 per cent in Counties Manukau, 6.4 per cent in the North Shore/Waitakere district and 7.1 per cent in Auckland.

Counties Manukau district commander Superintendent Steve Shortland said operations such as closing down a Mangere caravan park and cracking down on street racing had added to additional arrests.

Detective Superintendent Gavin Jones, acting district commander for Auckland City, expressed concern about the rise in theft from cars.

"While that obviously concerns me, I'm aware that many of those types of offences could be prevented through the public being made more aware of how to protect their property by removing valuable items from parked cars."

Superintendent Roger Carson said a key focus for his North Shore/Waitakere district was reducing burglary by improving response times.