This is a blog post I started to write a couple of weeks ago but it was temporarily lost in the heat and chaos of the local government campaign …
Who would have thought that a surge in homelessness would result in a spike in crime, that a dramatic increase in the number of people with no or compromised housing situations would cause an increase in burglaries, robberies and assaults.
From the Herald:
A surge in people falling victim to burglaries, robbery and assaults are behind an increase in reported crime in New Zealand over the past year.
The official crime statistics for the year ending August were released today, and showed 12,529 more victims than the year before.
The increase equates to a 4.8 per cent rise in crime.
It’s more bad news for Police Minister Judith Collins after last month’s crime statistics showed a 2.3 per cent increase in crime in the year to July.
I have been following crime statistics for a while. The Government lauded it up when the figures were coming down, even though the actual reasons appeared to be a combination of a change in prosecutorial practice and some pretty dodgy action by the police the full details of which has been hidden. And there has been some weird things happening, like the incidence of domestic violence increasing but the number of prosecutions decreasing. And the Government’s handling and reporting on various statistics has been less than exemplary.
But after a while you run out of changes you can make and then after a new baseline has been established changes in offending rates become relevant again.
So this news is going to hurt. No doubt the Wellington boffins are working away creating a list of diversionary tough on crime announcements. John Key’s open letter to ethnic communities clearly shows the nervousness they are feeling.
I suspect they are thinking of some big bang tough on crime policy to announce. One of them could be an announcement of retrospective legislation to stop prisoners who have been detained for longer than the law permitted from being compensated. Already Judith Collins has not ruled this out even though it would be a constitutional abomination. But what better way to divert attention from an area where National is vulnerable.
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