More violent crimes were reported in Wanganui last financial year than at any other time in the last decade but there's a catch.
National crime statistics released this week show 844 violent crimes were recorded in the 2007-08 year, up from 737 last year.
But Wanganui police Area Commander Duncan
MacLeod said the rise was partly attributable to more people reporting family violence.
"This is a positive sign that family violence is unacceptable and there is a lower tolerance to such offending across all sectors of the community."
A greater awareness of family violence meant more people were coming forward, rather than leaving it unreported, he said.
The violent crime statistics include one murder, one attempted homicide, three kidnappings, six robberies, 67 grievous assaults, and 282 serious assaults.
Despite the increase, a greater number of violent crimes are also being solved this year than last.
In 2007/08, local police resolved 94 per cent of violent offences, up from 93.8 per cent the year before.
In total, 793 of the 884 reported violent crimes were resolved satisfactorily, including 598 of 633 reported assaults.
A total of 5280 crimes were reported in Wanganui during 2007/2008, up one per cent from last year.
More than half were resolved, an improvement over last year.
Overall, the local resolution figures are better than both the Central Districts (49.9 per cent), and national (47 per cent) resolution figures.
Mr MacLeod said he was never happy with crime increases, and was not happy with the level of crime in New Zealand. However, the improvement in resolution rates, especially compared to the rest of the district and country, was positive.
"Wanganui has a caring community with strong leaders and a will to reduce crime and its effect on their citizens."
The figures represented 4500 fewer reported crimes than a decade ago, Mr MacLeod said.
In 1998/99, 8011 crimes were reported in Wanganui. About 120 police staff work in the area, and Mr MacLeod said there had been increases over the past few years, but no one was ever really happy with the numbers they had.
