Since he moved to Dunedin in late 2008, and during his three-year reporting tenure, 10,000 fewer crimes have been reported in the district, resulting in fewer investigations and, more importantly, fewer victims.
That reduction in crime in Southern, the country's largest police district, had led to inquiries from other police districts and politicians about the secrets to Southern's district's double-digit drops.
"Not only are people safer, but they feel safer," Supt Burns said, citing the latest surveys, which routinely placed Southern as the best police district for community satisfaction.
"Not only are we getting these reductions [in crime] but our community believes in those reductions."
The fall in crime began in Southland and was then followed by the Otago Rural and Dunedin/Clutha areas.
Essential to the dramatic drop was the shift in focus from governance issues, such as concern over uniforms and vehicles which, as a consequence, had made some staff "risk averse".
"Instead, we just focused on crime, and how we were going to reduce it."
When he arrived, Supt Burns asked staff to reduce crime by 20%, have no more than 20 deaths on the district's roads and have a case resolution rate of 60% by June 2012.
Instead of mobile patrols, proactive policing teams were formed, and police tasked with preventing crime based on intelligence data because "we needed to police by fact".
"If we have a suspect, I want that suspect spoken to or locked up in 24 hours. I don't want the file sitting on someone's desk.
"This is not rocket science - this is simple stuff." About 10% of locations attracted just over 60% of calls to police, with Dunedin's Octagon one such example.
The area was attracting almost 60% of nightly calls in the Dunedin area, but reported crime had dropped dramatically as a result of the installation of CCTV cameras, tougher enforcement of the liquor ban and cracking down on disorder.
In turn, this led to fewer incidences of serious violence and sexual offending.
"We know only a small number of offenders commit most of the crime, and so we focus on them and we make no apologies ... for putting pressure on our known active offenders."
Supt Burns said the change was prompted by the global recession and the Government's wanting to "do more with less".
Policing in the Southern District was also delivered under budget, no small feat for a far-flung region with a large percentage of sole stations.
He now wants a further 5% drop in crime each year for the next three years.
Southern district
• 651 staff: 555.5 sworn police, 95.5 non-sworn.
• 46 stations, including 16 sole charge.
• Configured into three areas, Dunedin/Clutha, Otago Rural and Southland.
• Covers 24% of New Zealand's land mass, 20% of the country's highway network and has more roads than any other district in the country.
