Lagging behind only Canterbury, which attributed its dramatic 14.6% year-on-year decrease in recorded crime to the aftermath of the February earthquakes, the Southern police district recorded a decrease of 10.3% in the year to June 30.
The Dunedin-Clutha police area had the biggest drop, with 11.9% less recorded crime than in the previous 12 months.
A total of 24,933 crimes were recorded in the Southern police district, nearly 3000 fewer than in the financial year before, and about 10,000 fewer than were recorded in the district 15 years ago.
Southland and Otago Rural police resolved 58% of the crimes recorded in their areas, an increase on the year before and well above the national resolution rate of 47.3%, while Dunedin-Clutha police stayed steady with a 50% resolution rate for the 10,951 offences recorded by them.
Overall, recorded crime in New Zealand dropped by 5.8% in the same period.
There were 416,324 recorded offences from July 1 last year through to June 30 this year, a decrease of 25,636.
The largest decreases were in Canterbury, Southern, Tasman (-8.4%), Central (-6.7%) and Waitemata (-6.1%).
Within the Southern police district all three police areas continued the trend of recent years with decreased recorded crime.
Southern district commander Superintendent Bob Burns said the trend was stemming from changes in policing style in the South.
Staff were now more proactive, used police intelligence more, and were more flexible in how they responded to incidents.
"These results are a clear indicator of what we can do with motivated staff, positive and robust community partnerships and a clear direction."
Dunedin Clutha area commander Inspector Dave Campbell said there were decreases in burglaries (down 16%), assaults (down 15.8%) and public place assaults, with several cases resolved using evidence from CCTV in the central city.
The doubling of robberies in the past year (from 22 to 44) reflected an increase in street robberies for things like cigarettes, clothing and cellphones, rather than a well-publicised spate of dairy robberies and the robbery of one bank.
There were 85 sexual assault and related offences in Dunedin-Clutha in the year to June 30, 35 more than the year before, which Inspector Campbell said reflected an increase in indecent assaults on females over 16 years of age and under 12.
Thefts, fraud and drug offending were down, the latter because police spent more time targeting major drug dealers and organised criminal groups, Insp Campbell said.
A decrease (-5.4%) in property damage was good news, as property damage accounted for more than 20% of all offending in the Dunedin-Clutha area.
In Otago Rural (Queenstown, Central Otago and Waitaki), recorded crime was down by 7.2%, from 6024 to 5589 offences.
Among that, the number of assaults (-15%), theft (-15%) and property damage (-6%) recorded by police decreased.
Area commander Inspector Mike Cook said the result was due to a lot of hard work by police and local communities.
Southland also continued a steady annual decline in reported crime rates, posting a 10% reduction, after a 13% decrease the previous year.
Area commander Inspector Lane Todd called the results "magnificent" and said they were a credit not only to police staff, but also to the hundreds of voluntary hours put in by Maori wardens, community patrols and neighbourhood watch in the city.
"The reduced licensed premises hours in the Invercargill CBD has also clearly had a positive impact, with an overall reduction of 42% of total offending in the CBD, including disorderly behaviour, violence and intentional damage."
The reduction in recorded crime was the result of police focusing on proactive, rather than reactive, policing and that focus would continue, with two new proactive policing teams recently brought into action.
