Authorised Speech to Burglary Workshop - Royal New Zealand Police College - Porirua

Thank you for inviting me to attend today's Burglary Workshop.

This Police College is the perfect venue for us all to consider Burglary and how we can slash the incidence of this crime and how best to catch criminals active in our communities.

I am pleased to share my thoughts on how the Police can best meet its responsibility to Government and to the community - to crack down on Burglary crime,

Maintaining Law and Order, in my view can be placed into two camps. Reactionary enforcement and pro-active policing.

Burglary, I believe, sits at the centre of the criminal culture.

It is a fact, that areas that appear depressed certainly attract and perhaps encourage a criminal element. Graffiti stained neighbourhoods offer a clear signal to all who venture within them that this is the patch of youth gangs and that an established criminal element exists.

It may mean in the urban areas of the greater Auckland region, ensuring graffiti vandals are arrested for the damage that they do.

Burglary is indeed the nucleus of the criminal culture.

Organised criminal elements exploit young people to burgle.

Burglars steal and sell goods to raise money for drugs.

Career criminals weigh-up the penalties and risks of being caught compared to how much they can earn from burglary.

I must say, for too long, that equation has favoured the criminal on that point.

Each of you will be aware that a significant amount of crime that is committed in New Zealand is committed by young people.

In many cases children are used and exploited by older criminals to carry out crimes. In other cases youth crime has developed sadly as a way of life.

The Government has a number of plans that target this problem.

We are providing Police with the tools to crack down on crime. I am encouraged that Police are cracking down on truants. Successful operations of this nature in Counties/Manukau have produced results - not only in getting these kids back to school, but also in reducing daytime burglaries.

The Police are being resourced to expand LET teams, and to increase the INTEL capabilities. Programmes like these, and the computer MAP based analytical crime fighting tool are examples of how the Government is providing Police with the necessary tools to crack down on crime.

· Crime Mapping Technology has been given a $1.341 million dollar boost over this financial year with a further $4.725 million over the following three years.
· Preventing repeat victimisation - target hardening pilot policy has received $280,000 this year with a further 960,000 dollars over the following three years.
· Funds to the tune of $2.51 million this year provide an additional three LET teams in the greater Auckland region, with an additional $7.593 million over the following three years. It is imperative that Police National Headquarters, who have been resourced by Government to increase the number of LET teams, do so as soon as possible.
· This, along with resources to provide for enhanced DNA testing, add to a total fiscal value of $4.469 million this year with an additional $14.117 million for the following three years.

Youth issues aside, the Government plans to ensure that Police are able to take advantage of scientific advancements in the area of DNA testing. This debate is likely to broaden in the coming months.

The policing of burglary must be reactionary. But it is important that this Government support, resource and develop pro-active policing strategies that not only curb the incidence of burglary, but also programmes that steer those, who perhaps are teetering on the edge of a criminal career, away from becoming a part of the criminal culture.

To this end the Government has increased resourcing for Police Youth Aid staff, Youth At Risk programmes, increased funding to Family Violence Prevention Services. The Government has targeted programmes that do make a difference and programmes that demonstrate progress in meeting the Government's core goal of Closing the Gaps between Maori, Pacific Islands and Pakeha New Zealanders.

But there are those, as you all know, who live in our communities, who steal from our communities. They steal not only material goods, but also the pride and security of those that the figures title "Burglary Victims".

All of us in this room will have personal knowledge of what it feels like to be a burglary victim. If not directly, then as a witness to a loved one who has had the sanctity of their home taken from them. They are violated, they are invaded, and they sometimes struggle to recover from the linger fear that an intruder can enter their homes at many time and take what they wish.

Simply, burglary makes victims of more New Zealanders than any other crime. Fact.

Burglary also provides criminals with experience that enables them to perpetrate other serious crimes and acts of violence.

Serial rapists Joseph Thompson and Malcolm Rewa, offence after rape offence worked alone, stalked, entered their victims homes with ease, viciously attacked their victims, violated their victims, then escaped from the crime scene aided by a premeditated plan.

Their ability to escape being caught for so long was aided by a history of being career burglars.

Burglary is the nucleus of the criminal culture.

For reasons such as I have outlined here this morning, this Government takes burglary very seriously.

You are all experts in your field. You know the difficulties that face you in your work as officers of law and order. This workshop I view as a think-tank of ideas of how we can all focus on a common purpose.

This year, there has been much publicity about burglary.

This is intentional. I want criminals to know, that no longer can they go about their selfish, dishonest and disarming ways with a smug assurance that the Police will not be hot on their heels.

The Government has contracted Police to respond to burglary, in 97% of cases, within 24 hours of it being reported.

I am encouraged to observe that it now takes Police on average 7 hours 11 minutes to respond to a burglary. These results vary from district to district. But it is a positive achievement when one compares this to the low priory approach that police were resourced to perform in recent years.

We now expect all police to be on the alert to burglars. Even traffic police ought to keep their eyes open for the tools of the criminal trade and the stolen goods that may be lying in the back of a speedster's car.

Recorded burglary is reducing. This change in attitude toward burglary no doubt has much to do with this result.

But I say to you, it is vital that Police resolve more crime. Attention must be made to reporting all resolved crimes.

Police must use this renewed emphasis on burglary to crack the criminal networks that are active in our communities. And your investigative skills must be enhanced by modern policing techniques that will pay dividends to the performance of your group, area, and district, and also to the communities that we serve.

Whenever I get the chance, I advance publicly the commitment that this Government made to New Zealanders: that we will not tolerate burglars, that we expect police to crack down on burglary. To enable Police to do this, this Government is providing Police with the tools necessary to catch crooks. And that we as a Government expect burglary, for the reasons outlined here today, to be treated by Police with the high priority it deserves.

I am keen, as Minister of Police to encourage forthright debate on how the Police can better meet their responsibility to the Government and the greater community.

We must focus on the job at hand. But we must also always be vigilant in developing ways that will better serve today's community to ensure that our families and loved ones are safe in their homes and that tomorrow's New Zealand is a better place to that which we have inherited.

I look forward to hearing of the progress that this workshop achieves. Thank you.