Kerre Woodham: The shoplifting directive is not a good look

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. You cannot go into an election promising to get tough on crime, win the election and vow to draw a line in the sand, declare war on the crims, and then issue a directive that police won't turn up to minor crime. To paraphrase supermodel Linda Evangelista, who famously said she wouldn't get out of bed for less than $10,000, it appears our coppers won't get out of their Skodas for less than $500.  

A memo has surfaced directing police staff not to investigate crimes under a certain value, such as shoplifting goods under $500. As you can imagine, there have been howls of outrage from retailers and dairy owners, and police are now scrambling to explain themselves. Ann-Marie Johnson, Retail NZ manager, was on Early Edition this morning. She says that retailers do have a realistic expectation of police.  

“Retailers know that police aren't going to show up to every small, very minor case of shoplifting, but we certainly want to know that they're taking these crimes seriously and that where they can, they will be following up and arresting. Often they're repeat offenders, so we know who they are, and police know who they are, so we want to particularly focus on those people.” 

Well, exactly. I remember ages ago I left my window open. I used to live in a villa that was on the street, and I left the window open in summer and some opportunistic heffer managed to heave herself through the window and scoop up what she could see in my bedroom and disappear. And I rang the police, not because I expected them to turn up, but because I needed the case number for my insurance claim, but somebody turned up about 3 or 4 days later and dusted for fingerprints on the windowsill. And because of that, they were able to match it to a nest of Vipers in West Auckland, a group of women who had committed all sorts of petty thefts and burglaries and crimes, and so it was worth holding off on the house cleaning and not doing the window sill so the police could dust for fingerprints. 

Of course they can't turn up to every crime. I know that, but it's not a good look. Police Minister Mark Mitchell says he is happy to talk, but he doesn't want to get ahead “of the police executive who are going to clarify their position”. I can only imagine the “please explain” face on the Minister when he made a call to the newish-Commissioner.  

It's one thing for us all to know that if our wallet is nicked because we stupidly left it on a bus stop seat, we know the police aren't going to converge on the scene of the crime, all blues and two in their numbers. It is quite another thing to know that a directive has been sent applying nationally standardised threshold values when assessing theft and fraud. Losing $500 worth of groceries and goods can have a huge impact on a small business' weekly turnover, and I sure as hell do not want to see losers walking out of supermarkets with $500 worth of groceries, getting a free pass.  

You don't elect a centre right government for that sort of carry on. That was the very thing that galvanised a significant number of voters to vote centre right. You may not be able to get to every petty thief in the country, you know that. I know that the retailers know that, and the crims sure as hell know that, but the messaging from police has to be that they're going to jolly well try. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from news Talks,
he'd b oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear, you cannot
go into an election promising to get tough on crime.
Wouldn't the election and vow to draw a line in
the sand to clear war on the crims, and then

(00:29):
issue a directive that police won't turn up to minor crime.
To paraphrase supermodel Linda Evangelista, who famously said you wouldn't
get out of bed for less than ten thousand dollars,
it appears our coppers won't get out of their scolders
for less than five hundred dollars. A memo has serviced
directing police staff not to investigate crimes under a certain value,

(00:51):
such as shoplifted goods under five hundi. As you can imagine,
there have been howls of outrage from retailers and dairy
owners and police are now scrambling to explain themselves. And
Marie Johnson, retail NZ manager on Early Edition this morning,
she says that retailers do have a realistic expectation of police.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Retailers know that police aren't going to show up to
every more very minor case of shoplifting, but we certainly
want to know that because they're taking these crimes seriously
and that where they can, they will be following up
and resting. Often they're a peater offenders, so we know
who they are, and police know who they are, so

(01:34):
we want to particularly focus on those people.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Well exactly, I remember ages ago, I left my window
open onto a I used to live in a villa
that was on the street. I know if the window
open summer, and some opportunistic heifer managed to heave herself
through the window and scoop up what she could see
in my bedroom and disappear. And I rang the police,

(01:57):
not because I expected them to turn up, but because
I needed the insurance the case number for my insurance claim.
But somebody turned up about three or four days later
and dusted for fingerprints on the window sill, and because
of that they were able to match it to a
nest of vipers in west Auckland, a group of women

(02:18):
who had committed all sorts of petty thefts and burglaries
and crimes, and so was worth holding off on the
house cleaning and not doing the window sills so the
police could dust for fingerprints. And it was worth it.
Of course they can't turn up to every crime. I
know that, but it's not good. It's not a good look.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell says he is happy to talk,

(02:40):
but he doesn't want to get ahead quote of the
police executive who are going to clarify their position. I
can only imagine the police explain face on the Minister
when he made a call to the Newish Commissioner. This
directive tell me about that. It's one thing for us
all to know that if our wallet is nicked because

(03:02):
we stupidly left it on a bus stoped seat, we
know the police aren't and to converge on the scene
of the crime, all blues and twos in their numbers.
It is quite another thing to know that a directive
has been sent applying nationally standardized threshold values when assessing
theft and fraud. Losing five hundred bucks worth of groceries

(03:23):
and goods can have a huge impact on a small
business's weekly turnover, and I sure as hell do not
want to see losers walking out of supermarkets with five
hundred bucks worth of groceries getting a free pass. You
don't elect to send to right government for that sort
of carry on. Oh no, please go ahead. No, we're
ar too busy. No, you just take that five hundred

(03:45):
dollars worth of groceries and you walk on out. That
is not no, no, no. That was the very thing
that galvanized a significant number of voters to vote. Send
to write. You may not be able to get to
every petty thief in the country. You know that. I
know that, the retailers know that, and the crims sure

(04:07):
as hell know that. But the messaging from police has
to be that they're going to jolly well try.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
For more from Carrywood and Mornings.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
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