Nick McDonnell: Auror spokesperson on new stats showing retail crime is down

There's encouraging numbers on retail crime in New Zealand, according to new reports.

Data from retail crime intelligence company Auror shows year on year for the 10 months to October, weapon use fell 12 percent and violent events dropped 6 percent.

In Australia, the same kinds of incidents are trending upwards.

Auror spokesperson Nick McDonnell says there's a reason such crime is dropping here.

"Retailers have really led the way in leaning into it, and then the police on the other side of the system have also leaned into this earlier than other markets - and are really collaborating together through the platform."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now there's been a if you're in the shops, you
may notice this. A notable drop in violent crime being
reported by retailers this year. Retail crime intelligence company AURA
has found the use of weapons is down twelve percent,
violent events down six percent, threatening events down five Meanwhile,
in Australia, the same kinds of incidents are trending upwards.

(00:21):
Or Vice president Nick McDonnell is with me this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Nick.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Good afternoon, afternoon, Ryan. How are you very well? Thank you?
So how do we know that? Is this just in
the areas where your cameras are recording?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, so we're not a camera company. A retailer will
put the information into our system, like a database of
information that they've already captured themselves, and they'll put in
the characteristics of an offense or an incident in their store.
And what they'll do is they'll tag it whether it's
had a weapon involved, or it's been violent or threatening,

(00:58):
those sorts of things, and that's whether that's where the
data comes from. And it is obviously for people who
are customers of ours, but that's quite a large spread
across the country.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
And what do people tell you, like, why is this happening?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Do you think, Well, I think New Zealand has been
very leading in terms of its adoption of technology in
this space. So one of the big things is ten
percent of people are causing sixty percent of the crime
in retail, and we know that that ten percent are
six or four to six times more likely to be violent.

(01:35):
But you have to surface that information in order to
find the patterns and in order to find the people
causing the most harm. And retailers have really led the
way and leaning into it, and then the police on
the other side of the system have also lent into
this earlier than other markets and are really collaborating together
through the platform. But it's that recognition that retail crime

(01:57):
is a really high volume crime type. You can't overwhelm
the system with every incident. So if you use the
technology to really make sense of the information, that allows
you to focus your resources more effectively.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
And does that mean we are identifying people who you know?
You said the ten percent? Are we identifying the repeat
offenders and not letting them into shops? And that's why
it's coming down?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
It can be a combination, right, So you are identifying them,
you are visiting to those people the events that previously
would have been seen as isolated incidents, So you're actually
saying this one person has caused ten events, rather than
there's ten different people causing ten events. And that then

(02:43):
allows police to be able to go pick up or
investigate those high harm offenders that are having the most
amount of impact. And if you're picking up those people,
you're taking them out of circulation, or you're doing whatever
else you need to do to prevent further crime.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Nick, really appreciate that update. Thank you. That's Nick McDonell,
who is with AURA Vice president. For more from Hither
Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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