Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
Well - not really. But the Police Recorded Crime Statistics while they sound encouraging are not exactly truthful of actual.
We have seen no discernable drop in violent crime - the type that is always reported. But minor property crime has fallen away, probably because homeowners have given up reporting it.
In the past twelve months I have had a fence pailing broken (not reported), a car broken into and some cheap sunglasses taken (not reported), and a grafitti attack on the front fence (not reported). None of these were reported to the Police because I didn't think any action would be taken.
During the last election campaign, ACT promoted 'Zero Tolerance to Crime'. One advantage of this approach is that minor property crime is recorded, followed up and the person responsible punished, not necessarily through the court system - usually with just a 'kick up the bum' from the constable the first time. The important thing is the criminal knows he has been caught for something he might have got away with earlier.
Of course, this means more community constables. With a $6.5 billion surplus I can't think of a better spending priority for Labour than 1000 new policemen. In the words of Sir Humphrey - "It will be popular, Minister."
We have seen no discernable drop in violent crime - the type that is always reported. But minor property crime has fallen away, probably because homeowners have given up reporting it.
In the past twelve months I have had a fence pailing broken (not reported), a car broken into and some cheap sunglasses taken (not reported), and a grafitti attack on the front fence (not reported). None of these were reported to the Police because I didn't think any action would be taken.
During the last election campaign, ACT promoted 'Zero Tolerance to Crime'. One advantage of this approach is that minor property crime is recorded, followed up and the person responsible punished, not necessarily through the court system - usually with just a 'kick up the bum' from the constable the first time. The important thing is the criminal knows he has been caught for something he might have got away with earlier.
Of course, this means more community constables. With a $6.5 billion surplus I can't think of a better spending priority for Labour than 1000 new policemen. In the words of Sir Humphrey - "It will be popular, Minister."
posted by Michael at
7:10 AM
1 Comments:
Its funny you should mention this as I have given up on the cops as well. Late last year someone tried to steal my flatmates car while we were still home. Calling the cops wasn't even discussed, though we got a description of the car and they were probably locals as we live on a tiny sidestreet.
The Auckland City Council people are prompt and courteous - whether its the parking wardens, noise control etc. Even the trash guys provide better service than the cops. Maybe its time to devolve them from central Government and give control of local policing back from where it was nicked in the late 18th century - the locals.
By
Antarctic Lemur, at 5:42 PM
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