Police Commissioner Richard Chambers. Photo / Mark Mitchell
By Sam Sherwood of RNZ
More than 5000 complaints of shoplifting below $500 were not forwarded for investigation while a controversial police directive was in place, documents released to RNZ reveal.
RNZ earlier revealed a directive was sent to staff relating to police’s File Management Centre (FMC) titled “Assignment Changes – Theft and Fraud”.
The directive said FMC was applying “nationally standardised value thresholds” when assessing theft and fraud files. The value thresholds were: general theft $200, petrol drive-off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (payWave, online, scam etc) $1000, and all other fraud $500.
“When assessing files with these offences, you will apply the relevant value threshold and file any file under that threshold regardless of any lines of inquiry or IFA score,” it said.
After the revelations Police Commissioner Richard Chambers canned the directive, which he called “confusing and unhelpful” following significant backlash.
Today, police released a series of documents to RNZ under the Official Information Act.
Among the documents was a tally of shoplifting complaints under $500 during the period the directive was in place. It revealed there were 5454 complaints of shoplifting that were not assigned for investigation.
In Auckland, only 73 of 927 complaints were assigned, in Canterbury 192 of 742, Wellington 131 of 694.
Chambers earlier said he was unaware of the directive until RNZ revealed it.
A staffer from the police minister’s office emailed Chambers on the evening of May 26 about an RNZ article on the memo.
“It would be helpful if we could get some clarity as to what the policy actually is and clear up the messaging around this,” the email said.
Chambers replied that he had liaised with Rachael Bambery, the executive director of service, victims and resolutions, and asked for a briefing to him and the minister’s office to “sort the messaging out”.
“For the record the messaging about not following up shoplifting complaints under a certain threshold is not correct and unhelpful. A range of information is taken into account when assessing complaints and this will inform what Police does.
“We have seen very effective approaches to retail crime in locations such as Tauranga and Gisborne which set the standard in terms of what is achievable, irrespective of threshold.”
Shortly afterwards, another email from a parliamentary email asked to be looped into any communications being sent about the limits on investigating shoplifting.
“We can see there’s a bit of traction tonight.”
Chambers replied: “I don’t agree with the content, and we need to provide some reassurance and better messaging to retail sector”.
Also in the OIA is a document titled “Service Group Continuous Improvement Project” dated January 2025.
The document said to provide a more “efficient and consistent service and to meet increasing demand”, the FMC was moving from a regional model to a national model.
“This will allow the FMC workload to be triaged, prioritised and actioned by FMC staff across the country, rather than the FMC staff physically based within districts.”
The process for assigning volume crime files was “inefficient, with avoidable time delays and double handling”.
Volume crime cases made up 62% of daily reports, of which 70% were theft, fraud and burglary.
It was proposed that the FMC and 105-non emergency teams would assign volume crime cases based on the solvability only, with “streamlined assignment rules” across the police districts.
“By standardising processes like assignment rules, FMC can move towards utilising its workforce more efficiently, freeing up capacity to do higher value and higher priority services.”
The document included the proposed value thresholds. The value thresholds were: general theft $200, petrol drive-off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (payWave, online, scam etc) $1000 and all other fraud $500.
On March 17, Superintendent Blair MacDonald sent the email earlier revealed by RNZ that from March 26, the thresholds would be in place.
The documents include an email from April 7 revealing the number of files being assigned for investigation since the rules were put in place 12 days earlier.
In the email, the police adviser said Wellington had the biggest change, from an average of 60 per day to an average of 30. The numbers were being compared to baseline data over a 47-day period before the threshold was put into place.
During the same period, Auckland City had a 26% decrease, Counties Manukau 21%, Eastern 38%, Central 42% and Canterbury 13%. Waikato had a 2.7% increase, which the staffer said was due to files being reassigned and appearing twice.
The OIA also includes a template that had been created to send to victims whose crimes did not meet the threshold.
The email thanked the victims for reporting their crime but said they “regret to advise, at this time, Police is unable to investigate further”.
“While we would like to resolve all matters to our victims’ complete satisfaction, there are occasions where we cannot.
“Investigations are prioritised using a range of factors including legal timeframes and the likelihood of a successful conviction.”
The email said police appreciated this may be “frustrating and upsetting” to hear, “particularly if you reported the incident recently or provided lines of inquiry”.
“We will however review your case if our ability to resolve this matter changes.”
RNZ has approached police for comment.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ he was “pleased that the Police Commissioner moved quickly to clarify Police’s position, initiate a review of relevant cases, and reassure the retail sector and the public that Police will continue to enforce the law with their usual discretion”.
Police earlier launched a review to establish how many cases of retail crime were filed while the controversial directive was in place.
A police spokesperson earlier confirmed to RNZ the national value threshold applied to the prioritisation of lower-level theft and fraud offences was being removed.
“A review is being completed on any cases that may have been impacted by those thresholds to assess whether they should be assigned to districts for follow-up,” the spokesperson said.
The review will be done by police’s data quality team.
“Police want to reassure that cases will continue to be managed locally balancing demand, resources and priorities to ensure the best possible service to victims in those communities.”
- RNZ