PHOTO/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
ELI HILL
[email protected]
A breakdown of police activity in the 12 months to the end of May has theft as the major crime committed in Wairarapa, but prevention activities took up more than three times as much time.
Data provided by police had 31,559 ‘events’ in total, but only 3583 related to crime.
This compares with 3984 crime events in the previous year.
Prevention activities, including foot patrols and checkpoints, were the biggest use of police time in the statistics, with 13,168 events recorded.
There were 5000 instances of social service and 4257 of investigation and forensic activities.
The most common crime recorded was theft, with 736 events over the year, on average slightly more than two thefts recorded each day.
Breaking and entering was the next highest with 560 events recorded, followed by traffic offences, of which 461 were recorded.
Outside crime stats, family harm generated 1135 events over 12 months and tended to increase over the weekend, peaking on Sunday, before dropping off throughout the week.
Cars and transport also generated plenty of work for police.
There were 577 vehicle collisions recorded in the 12 months. Fridays had the highest number of collisions with 103, Saturdays were next with 84.
On a national scale, Fridays were also the most common day for crashes, with Thursdays the second most busy.
As they can be for many in the community, Mondays were the slowest for Wairarapa police, with just 3338 events recorded, whereas every other day of the week had more than 3700 events recorded.
At the top end of the scale, Fridays had 3962 events through the year, followed by Tuesdays with 3907 events reported.
Unauthorised drag-racing and driving without a licence or on a disqualified licence generated 204, and 87 events respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of drag-racing events took place over Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Police recorded 128 cases of assisting fire and ambulance staff. These were also most common on the weekends.
People breaching their bail and bail conditions generated 394 events.
There were 212 missing person events recorded, 20 events related to cruelty to animals, and 17 related to cultivating illicit drugs.
