Has the crime wave in New Zealand ended and ram raids declined? An ongoing discussion on social news platform Reddit is mulling over why New Zealanders are not hearing the feverish pitch at which crimes were being reported last year.
On January 10, 2024, a user named ‘Mountain_tui’ started the discussion titled ‘What happened to the crime wave, ram raids, and gangs?’ The thread had attracted nearly 400 comments in a day, with users putting forward varying theories.
Among the main ones is the idea that during elections media organisations put more focus than usual on negative news, especially crime news. Most of the opinion is anecdotal, of course, with some users questioning the accuracy of the claim.
“What you’re pointing to is obviously a factor, but ramraids are way down on 2022 [sic] when they peaked, sometime in Aug from memory,” commented ‘turbocynic’, responding to another user who pointed to undue media coverage.
Several users are also arguing security measures like bollards and fog cannons have been put in place since the peak of ram raids, and that may have led to reduced retail crimes-another theory that no real study has been able to demonstrate.
Not to forget, many retailers The Indian Weekender spoke to last year said they weren’t too sure if these security measures were any real advantage.
But many remain skeptical of what they are describing as just perceived reduction in crime. A user named ‘petoburn’ wrote, “Along with the rest of the public service, police budgets have been cut and cops have been told they can’t do any overtime.
“Was talking to a cop mate last night and he said he’s going undocumented unpaid overtime to get work done because he feels he needs to, but a lot of work is simply not getting done.”
Another user, ‘kea-le-parrot’, added to that thought. “Had multiple ram raids near us around Christmas. Talked to a cop as [sic] there were no cop stops of the xmas party season when their normally would be.
“Said they are severely under resourced, and have cut back on roading related/‘present’ policing (in Auckland at least).”
You can weigh in on the topic at this Reddit thread - https://shorturl.at/dgHR8
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