John MacDonald: Let's not go all misery guts over these crime stats

How are you feeling about the world, now that we know the Government’s goal of having 20,000 less violent crimes by 2029 has already been achieved? Four years early.  

Anyone who tries to pick holes in this result would be a bit of a misery guts, because who could find anything possibly wrong with there being 20,000 less victims?   

Try Ginny Andersen. Labour’s police spokesperson is saying today that the numbers raise more questions than they provide answers.  

Which is a bit like a school kid getting excellence in their NCEA and their parents asking how they managed it when they seemed to be on their phone all the time.  

That doesn’t matter, does it? The kid’s got NCEA with flying colours. Just like it doesn’t matter why there’s been this decrease in violent crime, there just has.    

Although, I kind of hear what Ginny Andersen is saying. In Canterbury, there’s been a 43% decrease – 15,000 fewer victims of violent crimes. And no one seems to know why that is. But I’ll take it, thanks.   

And Ginny Andersen doesn’t seem to be excited by the fact that the Government has released these numbers in a different way. Normally, they're released once a year, but the Government is now releasing them every three months.  

But however this decrease has happened, why it’s happened, and whoever can take the credit for it happening, is irrelevant.   

Because the data tells us that something is working.    

We could go down a rabbit hole of trying to work out what particular bit of government policy might have actually done the trick, but I don’t even think the Government can put its finger on that one.  

Which is pretty much what Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith was saying on Newstalk ZB today.  

But, for now, the target has been reached, which I’m going to the vibe that’s been coming from the Government regarding crime, because I think that’s as important as any specific policies themselves.  

I’ve always been very doubtful about the gang patch ban, for example. I’m not convinced yet on that one, and I don’t actually think that will have much of an impact on violent crime stats.   

Just like the boot camps for bad kids – I’m not a fan.   

But, despite my misgivings on those things, I won't be giving the Government a hard time today about these crime numbers.  

I reckon a big part of it is the increased visibility of the police.  

I don’t know how they’ve done it —because the numbers haven’t shot up or anything— but certainly in Christchurch, the police are way more visible.  

I spend a lot of time in the central city, and I would say that I haven’t seen as many police on patrol in that part of town for years.  

It wasn’t all that long ago when I’d have business owners in the central city telling me about assaults and things and the cops being nowhere and not even turning up when they called them. Even though the central police station was a hundred metres away.  

Fast-forward to today, and it’s a very different story.  

So that’s one thing I reckon has definitely made a difference and is part of the reason why violent crime is down.  

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