Police Commissioner slams shoplifting directive as 'confusing and unhelpful'
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers says the directive sent to staff was "confusing and unhelpful".
Photo:
RNZ/Calvin Samuel
The Police Commissioner says a directive sent to staff about not investigating retail crime below certain thresholds was "confusing and unhelpful".
He has asked for a reminder to be issued to all district commanders that they should continue to catch offenders wherever possible, regardless of the memo's thresholds.
RNZ revealed last week a
directive
was recently sent to staff relating to police's File Management Centre (FMC) titled 'Assignment Changes - Theft and Fraud'.
The directive said that from 26 March the FMC was applying "nationally standardised value thresholds" when assessing theft and fraud files. The value thresholds are - general theft $200, petrol drive off $150, shoplifting $500, fraud (paywave, online, scam etc) $1000, and all other fraud $500.
"When assessing files with these offences, you will apply the relevant value threshold and file any file under that threshold regardless of any lines of enquiry or IFA score."
The police instructions relating to Case Management define an IFA score as "a numeric value derived from a series of weighted factors which gives an indication of the solvability of the case, based on the presence or absence of certain key lines of enquiry".
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said in a statement to RNZ that he wanted to reassure the retail community and the public that retail crime is one of his top priorities.
Chambers said the wrong message had been sent to the retail community and the public about the Police approach as a result of confusion about the memo which referred to thresholds for retail crime.
"I have made retail crime one of the priorities for the Police executive and that means increasing the focus on it. The memo has been confusing and unhelpful and does not meet my expectations on retail crime or the expectations of the retail community."
He had asked for a reminder to be issued to all district commanders that they should continue to catch offenders wherever possible, regardless of the memo's thresholds.
"It is my expectation police continue to work hard to catch offenders wherever possible. Our role is to enforce the law. If we were to take our focus off that, we are giving license to offenders to commit crime. That will not happen.
"That is important for police, for the retail community and for trust and confidence with the wider public."
"Retail crime is increasing and we are working closely with the retail community to address it. I want them to have confidence that we will continue to do so."
He said there were examples of successful approaches to retail crime, such as in Tauranga and Gisborne where a combination of dedicated teams, highly visible beat police and close work with the retail community had paid dividends.
Victims and Resolutions executive director service Rachael Bambery said district commanders were being reminded today that districts continued to have discretion to investigate crimes, taking into account the context and available resources.
"Early case closure is not final as new information and patterns often allow Police to revisit cases, for example where a small number of offenders can be linked to multiple offences."
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