Crime dropped slightly in the Dunedin and Clutha areas last year, despite rises in violent, sexual and drug crime, police figures show.
Full analysis and statistics in tomorrow's ODT
A spokesman said police were pleased with the overall 0.3% drop in recorded offences.
Within this overall drop there were increases in recorded offences in the violence, sexual, drugs and anti-social categories. Reductions in offending came in the remaining categories.
Police attributed the rise in violent offending to an increased readiness to report family violence.
Grievous assaults (+36 offences), serious assaults (+25 offences), and intimidation and threats (+24 offences) all rose but minor assaults dropped by 33 offences and public place violence reduced by 9 percent.
There was a 6 percent increase in drugs and anti-social offences.
The largest increase was for cannabis offences, which increased by 23% from 514 offences in 2008 to 630 offences in 2009.
These increases were offset by a 32% drop in alcohol offences, from 232 in 2008 to 159 last year.
There were increases in car theft (+66 offences), burglary (+33 offences), and theft (+29 offences) offences.
A 5 percent decrease in property damage was attributed to the work of community constables who targeted this offence, including providing crime prevention advice to property owners at risk.
