Thousands on run from law

ANaverage 12,000 people are at any one time on the run from the courts – a number equivalent to the population of Waikato town Matamata.

About 40,000 arrest warrants are issued each year. The warrants are documents giving police the power to arrest someone. They are commonly issued when an accused fails to appear in court or breaches bail conditions. They may also be issued for the arrest of someone suspected of a crime but still at large.

Among current active warrants, more than 100 are two years old, more than 200 are three to five years old, and almost 200 are six to nine years old.

Police say they place a high priority on bringing people to justice and ‘‘anyone on an active warrant is a concern’’.

Victim Support chief executive Tony Paine says the number of warrants is a ‘‘ concern for all of New Zealand but particularly for the victims of that crime’’.

Detective Superintendent Rod Drew, national manager criminal investigations, said some offenders will go to significant lengths to evade police.

According to the figures released to Fairfax Media by the Justice Ministry, on January 31 this year there were 14,151 people with active warrants. On February 29, the number was 12,185 and on March 31, there were 10,242 people evading capture.

Latest Statistics New Zealand figures show that more than 106,000 people appeared before the courts last year.

Many people with arrest warrants against them – 3464 – are wanted for offences such as breaching bail, or breaching a violence order, or for breaching community service orders. A large number – 1105 – are wanted for theft and 2148 for traffic offences.

But more serious offences are well represented too. About 50 people were on the run from robbery and extortion charges, one was on the run for manslaughter, 863 for assault, more than 360 for drug offences and more than 800 for fraud offences.

Tony Fisher, Justice Ministry district courts manager, said the active warrant figures represented a snapshot of the volume of people going through the criminal courts.

‘‘In the vast majority of cases the warrants are active for only a short period of time until police are able to apprehend the accused and bring them before the courts.’’

Drew said police officers ‘‘invest significant time and energy’’ to ‘‘ensure that outstanding warrants are cleared, and would like that number to be zero’’.

‘‘Police deal with victims of crime on a daily basis and understand the trauma that these crimes create.’’

He said police ‘‘use a number of tools and methods to proactively track down those on outstanding warrants, including tracing known associates, friends, family and information sharing with other agencies nationally and internationally’’.

Anyone with relevant information about a wanted offender should contact police, or report it anonymously through Crime Stoppers 0800 555 111.