Since the start of Covid-19 lockdown last month, more than 55,000 reports of potential breaches have been made to police, Commissioner Andrew Coster revealed today.
Since moving to Alert Level 4 on March 25, 4452 breaches have been issued by police, with 423 coming in the past 24 hours, Commissioner Coster says.
A further 3844 warnings and 131 youth referrals have also been issued.
Despite the number of lockdown breaches, Commissioner Coster says the overall crime numbers have dropped in New Zealand with a 57 per cent drop in road policing callouts, a 42 per cent drop in theft and burglary and a 26 per cent drop in assaults.
The early stages of the lockdown did see a rise of domestic violence, before rates dropped to a similar level at this stage last year.
There has also been a "sharp rise" in calls to the Government's free national mental healthline service.
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