Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7294] 
2.  
RON MARK (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Is he firmly of the view that police resources in the Auckland district are sufficient to handle all facets of crime? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 No because predicting where and when crime will occur and the allocation of police resources to deal with it is not an exact science and is always a matter of debate. 
Ron Mark 
: Why was there no ability of Auckland police to respond to a request for assistance from a member of the public who followed a stolen vehicle containing offenders who due to the lack of a police response were able to go on to rob a petrol station and assault the attendant? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Sometimes the police make mistakes. They are human and with over 1 million calls a year they do get it wrong sometimes. However I am very proud of the New Zealand police because most times they get it right. 
Georgina Beyer 
: Has the Minister seen any articles on Auckland crime recently? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Yes. I have a copy of an article from the  
New Zealand Herald 
 of 25 June headlined: “Auckland police undermanned and overworked”. It is taken from an article written 100 years ago. There has probably never been a time when the media have reported it any differently. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: How does the Minister justify his statement that police in Auckland are well staffed in the light of the fact that last year fewer than one in 15 burglaries in Auckland was solved—the lowest rate of resolution on record predating his often quoted article from the  
New Zealand Herald 
 today? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The pan-Auckland area has some 2039 police as of today and 28 more of them will graduate today and will join the Auckland numbers. There are now only 60000 burglaries a year compared with 96000 burglaries when that member was part of a Government. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Could the Minister justify his belief that police resources in Auckland are satisfactory considering that when we look at east Auckland and his own electorate and indeed the electorate of Pakuranga we see that sexual offences since the year 2000 have increased 71.9 percent drug and antisocial offences are up 41 percent violent offences are up 11 percent in the Minister’s electorate and general crime in the east Auckland area is up 9 percent; is the Minister’s view to his constituents that that is satisfactory? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Even one sexual crime is not satisfactory. The member must know that it is not a resource problem. Last year the police in the Auckland area under-spent their allocation of money by some $5 million. 
Ron Mark 
: What comments can the Minister of Police make in respect of the appalling claim that during the aforementioned offence I described police were detailed on traffic-related matters in the vicinity—indeed the offenders drove past a large number of police carrying out their duties and not one of them was dispatched to assist the citizen calling for help? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: As I said earlier the police made a mistake. They are human. It does happen. And I can say that that member is not always right himself.