The latest police crime statistics show the number of victims of crime fell by 1.68% in Otago last year, but there were large increases in the number of burglaries and robberies.
Burglaries increased by more than 100 from 1623 in 2015, to 1732 last year. A rise of 6.72%.
In Southland, the burglary rate increased by 11.35% and total crime was up 6.32%.
Acting Southern district prevention manager Inspector Matenga Gray said the increase in burglary was a ``concern'', but police could not point to any particular cause for the rise.
``Any increase in reported burglary is a concern. However, there can be many reasons for this, with no two burglaries the same and fuelled by a number of influences,'' he said.
``We strongly encourage anyone who is a victim of burglary to let police know as soon as they are able.
``Burglaries are notoriously difficult crimes to solve. However, all information is important to police and does allow us to plot trends and patterns, influencing our deployment of staff and resources.''
Low resolution rates and more burglaries prompted the Police Commissioner to last year order police to attend all burglaries. That policy was this year refined to attending 98% burglaries in 48 hours.
In the past, police policy dictated burglaries should be attended within 10 hours. That timeframe was extended to 24 hours and more recently, under the present Government, it was accepted police would attend when they could.
When asked if the changes to policy were expected to affect the number of burglaries and when those effects were anticipated to take place, police did not directly address the question.
Instead, Insp Gray said: ``It is the commissioner of police's expectation that police will attend all dwelling burglaries within a reasonable timeframe, but there will be instances where this is not possible.
``Given the nature of policing, there will be occasion where we cannot attend a burglary for a range of reasons, including to adhere to the wishes of a victim.''
Police announced the change in policy while also announcing 880 sworn officers were destined for New Zealand's frontline. They did not provide further details on where those officers would serve.
Insp Gray said no further details were available on when more officers could be expected in the Southern district.
