Juvenile Crime High In City

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30762, 28 May 1965, Page 3

Juvenile Crime High In City

(Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, May 27.

Christchurch shares with Auckland and Hamilton the doubtful privilege of being one of the three biggest centres of juvenile crime in New Zealand, according to the annual report of the New Zealand police, tabled in Parliament this afternoon.

During the year ended March 31 last, the Christchurch police handled 1476 cases of juvenile crime, involving 1048 children. Cases handled by the juvenile crime prevention .sections in other main districts, with the number of children involved in brackets, were as follows:

Auckland, 1885 (1758): Hamilton, 1567 (1026); Wellington. 953 (733); Rotorua, 759 (522); Lower Hutt, 740

(886); Palmerston North, 668 (831): Whangarei, 598 (407); Dunedin, 595 (481); Napier, 498 (326); Hastings, 396 (240); Greymouth, 382 (337); Tauranga, 318 (157); Gisborne, 313 (237); Wanganui, 240 (244). A slight decrease in the total number of cases handled was recorded at 12,484, compared with 12,672 during the previous year. Strength A marked gain in police numbers was reported. The net gain in strength was 87. In all 333 recruits were attested, and the force ended the year with an effective strength of 2698, including 51 policewomen, compared with a strength of 2611 at the beginning of the year. Use Of Dogs Trained police dogs were called out on 355 occasions in 1964-65 to search for offenders, escapers, and missing persons. At the close of the year there were 24 fully opera-

tional dogs and 14 at various stages of training, giving a total of 38—eight more than in the previous year.

Australian Duties

The interchange of New Zealand and Australian detectives introduced in 1962 continued last year, and two members of the New South Wales C. 1.8. undertook duty in the main centres for two months over the DecemberFebruary period. At the same time, two New Zealand detectives carried out similar duties in Sydney. Offences Statistics

An increase in the number of traffic, motoring and liquor breaches accounted for a major part of the rise in last year’s total offences statistics.

There was an increase of 4480 offences—traffic and motoring 2480 more, liquor and licensing 1074 more—the total being 118,422.

There was less drunkenness again last year. The incidence fell to 1.54 a 1000 of

population, compared with 1.67 in 1963. There were 13 cases of murder, compared with 10 in the previous year. There were only seven cases of attempted murder, as against 15 in 1963. Cyprus Service

Many good reports on the conduct and work of the New Zealand police unit in Cyprus had been received.

Duties undertaken in Cyprus included observations of searches carried out by Greek Cypriot police at road blocks; mobile patrols in country areas and in Limassol city and its environs; observation of convoys of arms and equipment; and the inspection of ships unloading military equipment. False Alarms

Concern over the large number of false alarms from burglar alarm systems installed in some business premises was reported. Steps were being taken to see that these business concerns improved their equipment.