POLICE EFFICIENCY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 452, 6 September 1928, Page 12

POLICE EFFICIENCY

DOMINION’S CRIME RECORD

MOTOR-CYCLE SQUADS (THE SUN'S Parliainentary Reporter) WELLINGTON. Wednesday. The success of the scheme introduced during the year, whereby the Auckland Police District is divided into three separate districts, and placed under co-ordinated control, is mentioned ih. the annual police report presented to Parliament to-day. Commissioned officers in charge of each division meet daily, or as often as circumstances require, and decide upon the course to be followed in intricate or special cases. Efficiency, it is contended, is served by the new method. Superintendent Wohlmann, in his report, says that two fast motor-cycles are required for police patrol work in Auckland. Auckland, with a total of 8,861. of- 1 fences reported, heads the Dominion’s crime list, the totals of the other centres being 5,39 S for Wellington, 4,182 for Christchurch, and 1,614 for Dunedin. The offences reported to the police during the year ended December 31, 1927, showed an aggregate net increase of 529 on the figures for 1906. The proportion of offences to the population was 2.21, as against 2.19 in* the previous year. Serious crime in the Dominion showed an increase for the year. In 1926, 1,224 offences were reported and 847 arrests made, while in 1927, 1,520 offences were reported and 1,081 arrests resulted. In both years 13 murders were committed, seven arrests being made last year, as against nine in 1926. INCREASE AND DECREASE The number of offences reported was 32,144, arrests or summonses resulting in 29,799 cases. The principal increases related to false pretences (191), burglary, etc. (251), arson (23), breaches of the peace (86), .vagrancy (59); gamnig offences (252), failure to maintain wives, etc. (142), sellingliquor after hours (64), found on licensed premises _ after hours (160), breaches of the Motor Vehicles Act (982). Decreases wei’e recorded with respect to common assault (56), attempted theft from dwellings (68), j drunkenness (970), indecent acts (72), obscene language (71), assaulting or resisting the police (49), unlawfully using motor-cars (66), breaches of the Arms Act (135). The number of persons charged with drunkenness was 6.884, comprising 6.546 males and 338 females, whereas in 1926 the number was 7,854, of whom 7,489 were males and 365 females.