Friday, August 8, 2008

Police Problems Continue

The revelation in Parliament by National’s Chester Burrows a former policeman that police solved only five of the 53 aggravated robberies of South Auckland shops in the six months before liquor store owner Navtej Singh was fatally shot in a hold-up will come as no surprise to those familiar with the under-resourcing of the police in the Counties Manukau Police District.

This follows stories of lost files and files left unattended as a result of a combination of low staff numbers and inexperience. The average level of experience in the CMPD is just 5 years compared with 15 years in Invercargill.

In 2005 the then Police Commissioner Rob Robinson admitted that there were 11 “unassigned sex cases” after questions were raised in Parliament by ACT MP Rodney Hide. Police Minister George Hawkins admitted that that of the 11 “unassigned sex cases” 5 were cases of rape complaints. Mr Robinson also acknowledged at that time that there were1000 unassigned criminal complaints.

New Zealand has a low ratio of sworn police officers to population and crime and criminals will flourish unless there are more police on the streets of our cities.

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