New data shows a significant drop in the number of people who were victims of crime in the past year. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the number of victimisations recorded by Police during 2018 fell by 2.7 per cent.

“This means 7240 fewer people were victims of crime than the previous year,” Mr Nash says.

“One of the Coalition Government’s top priorities is to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders. There is a particular focus on community policing and on tackling organised crime, which is a driver of crimes such as burglary and assault.

“The Police statistics for 2018 show the drop in victimisations involved 1393 fewer crimes against a person and 5847 fewer crimes against property.

“This decline has been led by a drop of 4706 burglaries, representing a 6.8 per cent decrease. This is really pleasing given the invasive nature of the crime and its effect on people’s feelings of safety in their own home.

“Another pleasing result is 570 fewer robberies last year. After spiking to more than 4000 robberies in 2017, recorded robberies dropped by 14 per cent, following significant effort by Police and investment from Government to provide fog cannons and other prevention advice to at-risk shop owners.

“But while the trend is heading the right way in these categories, there are still too many victims and families suffering the trauma and other effects of serious crime.

“While there were 1000 fewer victims of assault, a fall of two per cent, Police recorded 119 more victims of sexual assault, an increase of two percent. Sexual assaults are internationally recognised as under-recorded and Police advise that the increased number may mean more victims are coming forward.

“The addition of extra police over the coming years will further ensure people feel safe in their communities. Today an additional eighty new constables officially graduate from the Royal New Zealand Police College.

“The graduation of Wing 323 means 1190 new frontline officers have been deployed around the country since the Coalition Government took office. I am also delighted with the diversity and range of skills of today’s new graduates. The youngest is 18 years old and the oldest is 48. One third are women, 14 per cent are Maori, and they share at least 12 foreign languages between them.

“I also want to pay special tribute to the 37 new constables who have just returned from supporting other emergency service personnel during the Tasman fires. After passing their final exams last week, they took their oaths as constables and headed to the South Island to assist with community safety and crime prevention efforts. It has been a brave and commendable introduction to their new career as frontline officers,” Mr Nash says.

A new survey is allowing victims/survivors of crime to be heard, in their own words, about how our broken criminal justice system can be fixed, says Justice Minister Andrew Little.