Police memo on crime tolerance thresholds begs big questions – Editorial

Editorial

THREE KEY FACTS

• Police faced criticism over a memo setting value thresholds for investigating some theft and fraud crimes.
• The memo, which set thresholds such as $200 for theft and $500 for shoplifting, caused concern for the retail sector.
• Police Commissioner Richard Chambers acknowledged the confusion and emphasised prioritising catching offenders.

There was once a common understanding among the Kiwi motoring classes that police would tolerate speeding up to a certain threshold.

Most drivers understood the buffer to be about 10km/h, perhaps less if it was a holiday weekend or the local highway patrol was particularly enthusiastic.

How official this approach ever was is debatable, but in about 2020, police started actively dismantling it: the tolerance was zero and speed limits would be enforced.

It’s a relevant piece of history to recall as police try to quench a firestorm of criticism over an internal memo, revealed by RNZ, that sowed confusion over whether police had tolerance buffers for some dishonesty crimes.

The memo, sent to staff in March, outlined “nationally standardised value thresholds” for whether to investigate theft and fraud files, eg: $500 for shoplifting, $200 for general theft, $150 for petrol drive-offs.

The retail community was understandably concerned and sought urgent clarification that police would not ignore some crimes on the basis of a dollar figure.

There were fears criminals would feel at liberty to offend and that national thresholds could disrupt good regional work targeting retail crime.

In Tauranga, for example, the Western Bay of Plenty Retail Crime Unit was set up in 2023 to nab the repeat offenders doing the most harm to retailers.

A six-person team made more than 200 arrests and laid more than 1200 charges in their first six months. CBD shopkeepers sang the unit’s praises.

“We feel well supported,” said one. “In the past, we felt that no one even cared.”

Criticism of the memo came from top police figures including Police Commissioner Richard Chambers (“the memo has been confusing and unhelpful”) and Police Minister Mark Mitchell (“all crime is crime”).

Chambers told a press conference the memo had been canned, but acknowledged police must prioritise jobs and used a number of factors for this.

He expected police to continue to work hard to catch offenders wherever possible, called retail crime a top priority and acknowledged the memo sent the wrong message to retailers.

Retail crime costs New Zealand retailers $2.6 billion each year.

It is a daily battle waged in stores big and small, impacting the wellbeing of frontline staff as well as the bottom line.

Of more than 140,000 incidents in 2023-24 identified by Retail NZ surveys, 40% had not been reported to police. Respondents did not believe police had enough resourcing to support them.

Everybody understands police cannot treat every reported crime as priority one.

But victims of crime deserve to feel that the justice system has their backs, including those who work on the shop floor.

Any faith and confidence retail workers had in the police’s ability to respond to the growing problem of retail crime will have been seriously eroded by this sorry episode.

And no one should have been given cause to question whether the New Zealand Police have a zero-tolerance policy on crime.

Sign up to the Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.