‘Lockdown kindness’ continues to keep crime down

A significant drop in reported crime in Timaru has been attributed to Covid-19 lockdown and good community engagement with police.

A ‘‘crime snapshot’’ of Timaru from police shows the numbers of reported assaults, sexual assaults, abductions, robberies, burglaries and thefts dropped from 1673 between November 2019 and October 2019 to 1301 between November 2019 and October 2020.

‘‘I think it is a great result for our community, ‘‘ Aoraki area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said.

‘‘It is a very good reduction, the challenge is for us is to continue that downwards trend.

The figures show all crime types in the snapshot had dropped – burglaries (566 to 396), thefts (851 to 698), assaults (211 to 185), sexual assaults (21 to 14), robberies (15 to five) and abductions (nine to three)

‘‘We have low numbers in relation to crime across the country. If you look at Timaru, crime figures indicate we have a good community.

‘‘We rely so much on the community, and we do have the means of support.’’

Gaskin said Covid-19 lockdown had influenced the figures.

‘‘The thing is the Government encouraged us to be kind and that influenced the figures, and that level of kindness has continued.

‘‘Having a lot of people at home over Covid-19 was significant, a lot of people who would normally commit crime were not walking the streets.

‘‘One of the big drivers for crime is unplanned alcohol, and we didn’t have people at bars late at night and legging it home.’’

Gaskin said he could not give away ‘‘trade secrets’’ in terms of what police had specifically done and continued to do to get reported crime figures down.

‘‘We are lucky that we have a limited number of people causing harm in our community. The area of focus is targeting the baddies, and the beauty of this place is we know where they are.’’

In Waimate and Mackenzie, corresponding showed slight increases in all crimes during the corresponding time periods.

The numbers of reported assaults, sexual assaults, abductions, robberies, burglaries and thefts in Waimate went from 185 to 202 while the figures jumped from 94 to 107 in Mackenzie.

In Waimate four of the six crime types went up with theft (56 to 80) being the most significant.

Reported burglaries dropped from 107 to 97 and sexual assaults remained unchanged with two reported during both time periods.

In Mackenzie reported assaults rose from three to 14, burglaries from 30 to 31 and thefts from 55 to 60.

Reported sexual assaults dropped from six to two.

‘‘The thing with Waimate and Mackenzie is they are very small numbers and those variations you are always going to get.’’

‘‘The area of focus is targeting the baddies, and the beauty of this place is we know where they are.’’

Inspector Dave Gaskin