Region’s crime drops away in lockdown
Crime dropped significantly in Tasman over the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the number of breaches in the police region was one of the lowest in the country.
An expected spike in family harm and burglaries also failed to materialise.
Police statistics have shown the Tasman Police District (comprising Nelson Bays, Tasman, Marlborough and the West Coast) had a significant drop in crime during the lockdown, across a number of offence categories.
Nelson Bays Area Commander Inspector Paul Borrell said while the novelty of the situation made it difficult to prepare for, police had examined overseas trends in areas like New York to get an indication whether crime could spike in certain areas.
‘‘What the research from New York told us to prepare for was an increase in family harm and dishonesty crimes (such as burglary).’’
Borrell said while there had been a slight increase in family harm cases in the first week of lockdown, the numbers soon dropped away to normal levels, where they stayed through to the post-lockdown period.
An increase in burglaries also failed to materialise. Borrell said there was an expectation commercial burglaries might spike, and while some did occur they were no more frequent than normal.
‘‘There was a difference from what we expected. All you can do to prepare for the unknown is to learn from the experience of others – but we didn’t see [those increases] at all.’’
While specific information relating to the whole lockdown period was not available for types of crimes committed – there was a significant reduction in recorded crimes and callouts during alert level 4 lockdown in April.
The biggest decrease was in the number of thefts in the Tasman District during April, dropping more than half from 274 in April 2019 to 125 this April.
Coming out of the lockdown, Borrell said while things were starting to return to ‘‘business as usual’’, there was a sense that crime was still below pre-lockdown levels.
In particular, he said serious crime (which includes assaults against people and burglaries at dwellings) was down 33 per cent on the same time last year.
Borrell said the effect of Covid on crime was not necessarily over yet though, if unemployment trends continued to worsen.
‘‘Unemployment can have an effect on dishonesty crimes, basically with people trying to feed their families.’’
Borrell paid tribute to the Tasman community for their response to the lockdown between March and May.
Compared to the 12 other police districts, Tasman had the secondlowest amount of breaches during lockdown – but were sixth when it came to the total number of prosecutions.
Borrell said the Tasman community had been ‘‘absolutely fantastic’’ in their response to the situation. He said police in Tasman had focused on a low-key, educational approach to enforcing the lockdown, starting with informal conversations and education before moving to official warnings and prosecutions.
In total, 70 people across the region were prosecuted for lockdown breaches. Seventy-five verbal warnings were also issued, along with 273 written warnings, and 33 youth referrals.
Borrell said of the 70 prosecutions, many included people who had been caught breaking lockdown specifically to commit crimes. He said there was also an element of the community who openly flouted lockdown rules despite multiple warnings.
The statistics showed young men were the main culprits for the grand total of 451 Covid-19 breaches.
Twenty to 30-year-olds were the age group most likely to breach restrictions at 37 per cent, while 71 per cent of all breaches were committed by males.
Sorted by ethnic groups, Europeans were responsible for 61 per cent of the breaches, with Ma¯ ori the next highest – accounting for 25 per cent of all breaches.
In terms of police callouts for service and prevention, Tasman had the lowest number in the country during lockdown at 31,664 (the highest in the country was Counties/Manukau at 146,095).
Tasman also had the lowest amount of pandemic checks compared to the rest of the country, with 2167 (Waitemata had the highest number of checks at 21,885).