Only 10% of district’s burglaries resolved

A recent spate of burglaries set southern nerves on edge. While the number of breakins has recently fallen, their resolution rate makes grim reading. George Block reports.

IF you are a victim of a burglary in the South, nine times out of 10 the case will not be solved.

Data released by police under the Official Information Act shows in the past three years there have been about 2760 burglaries or breakins annually in the Southern district, which encompasses Otago and Southland.

On average, 252 of these resulted in court action, while 17 led to ‘‘noncourt action’’ each year, representing a resolution rate for 201517 of 9.7%.

While that might sound dismal, southern cops were well ahead of the national burglary resolution rate of 6.8% over the same period.

That said, there were some parts of the South where burglars were much less likely to face justice.

Since July 2014, when police introduced their current method for counting ‘‘victimisations’’, there have been 25 burglaries in the catchment of the Middlemarch police station.

Police said they considered a burglary successfully resolved if they ‘‘apprehend one or more offenders within 30 days of the matter being reported to police’’.

Under that criteria, not a single burglary in

Middlemarch has been successfully resolved in nearly four years.

Average yearly burglary resolution rates since July 2014 were also below 5% in Stewart Island, Bluff, Portobello, Port Chalmers and Omakau.

On Stewart Island, that 0% represents its single reported burglary going unsolved.

The best resolution rate was recorded in Tapanui, where nearly 23% of burglaries were resolved each year on average, helped hugely by the fact there have been three burglaries in the West Otago town this year, two of which resulted in court action.

Otautau also cleared 20%. Asked why resolution rates were so low in some areas, Otago Coastal area commander Inspector Matenga Gray said solving burglaries in remote areas could be very difficult, and he urged farmers to be vigilant.

‘‘This could be a combination of lack of witnesses to the offence; how rural and isolated the victim’s property is; [and] the lack of awareness of victims about prevention [for example] keeping houses/property locked.

‘‘If people live rurally, keep in mind police may need to travel long distances to get to your house. Clearly tag animals and keep accurate stock and produce records. Lock all rural buildings, including your house.’’

Across the Southern district, Invercargill Central Police Station was by far the busiest for burglaries — 2459 were reported to police between

July 2014 and March this year.

That was twice as many as the next most burglaryprone area, Dunedin South, which recorded 1073 in the same period.

As of the end of March, this year seemed set to be the first year since the new police statistics system began that the Southern district would clear 3000 burglaries.

The increase was concentrated in Otago, where reported burglaries and breakins were up 61% in Central Otago and 39% in Queenstown Lakes for the first three months of 2018, compared with the same period last year.

In March, there were 115 reports to Dunedin police, a 50% jump on the 77 reported in March 2017.

However, reported burglaries in Otago dropped by almost a third between March and April this year.

Police also recently apprehended at least three prolific burglars.

❛ It’s relatively easy to get away with a oneoff burglary; it’s just getting away with them time after time that’s difficult Greg Newbold

Two of them, men aged 28 and 40, were caught at a Brockville home late last month in a police raid which also netted a massive haul of stolen goods, including jewellery, electronics, clothing, household items, two motorcycles, an electric bike and tools.

Police are now in the process of reuniting the goods with their owners.

University of Canterbury criminologist Prof Greg Newbold said burglaries tended to drop when the colder months began.

‘‘Those types of crime tend to go down in the winter months, when it’s cold and dark and miserable.’’

That view is supported by a 2011 study by University of Canterbury researchers James Horrocks and Andrea Kutinova Menclova.

It reported a significant positive correlation between temperature and property crime in New Zealand.

Prof Newbold, who decades ago was jailed for drug dealing, said burglaries were generally trending downwards nationwide.

The days of the professional burglar were largely over, thanks to improved security systems and the decreasing profitability of burglaries, he said.

‘‘The old methods were . . . bang a bloody alarm off a wall, then get away with a colour TV, which were worth a lot of money back in the ’70s.

‘‘You could get rid of them and make a good quid out of it.

‘‘Nowadays it’s much harder to get into buildings.

‘‘Most of the guys I know who used to be active back in the ’70s and ’80s, armed robbers and professional burglars and thieves, they don’t do that any more because there’s just not enough money in it.

‘‘They are mainly doing methamphetamine and they’re mainly in Auckland.’’

Prof Newbold said he was not surprised by the low burglary resolution rates, and burglars were typically caught after busts like last month’s raid in Brockville.

‘‘It’s relatively easy to get away with a oneoff burglary; it’s just getting away with them time after time that’s difficult.

‘‘Unless there’s some prints [police] can identify, they’re too busy trying to solve the big crimes.

‘‘I mean it’s just so hard to get someone . . . They normally wait until they go round to bust somebody and find stolen goods there, and trace the goods back to the burglary.

‘‘But for the most part, solving burglaries is difficult.’’