Ram-raids: Drivers of crime need to be looked at - former cop

With a rise in ram-raids, the drivers of crime need to be looked at, a former police negotiator says.

"We've got to look at the drivers of crime, rather than the crime and the criminals. So what's the underlying cause of this," Lance Burdett, who was in the police force for 22 years, told Breakfast.

His words come after three retail stores were ram-raided at Ormiston Town Centre in Auckland early on Tuesday morning.

CCTV footage captured three vehicles racing through the mall, joined by a dozen more thieves on foot. It also showed the thieves loading up the vehicles with a number of electronics and clothing items before they fled in two of the three stolen vehicles.

Burdett said the cost of living crisis in part is behind the recent uptick in ram-raids around the country, which includes Gucci and Louis Vuitton's Auckland CBD stores being ram-raided about two weeks ago.

An 11-year-old was among nine arrested earlier this month after a superette in Auckland's Sandringham was ram-raided.

"People now seem to be getting a bit desperate and so when you look at the stores they targeted, one was a clothing store, so you've got to look at why they are going to those sorts of stores and not going for high-end goods," Burdett said.

"You've had a news item this morning about how rents are on the rise and food prices are on the rise. People struggle, right? Not everyone turns to crime, of course. People get second jobs or third jobs, but people who go to crime are no different to anybody else, they still struggle. I know how it sounds, I'm not being flippant with that. It's just the reality that criminals have to find ways to make a living and that's the way they choose to do so. So they have to come up with inventive ways of doing so."

National leader Christopher Luxon told Breakfast he personally thinks the issue is that the Government has been "very soft on crime".

"[It] has sent a message from the top down that actually there are no consequences and as a result they're sending the wrong message out there. I appreciate there's complex issues in this, in terms of we've got to be tough on crime and the causes as well. We've got to work both those angles at the same time. But at the moment it just doesn't feel like there's any consequences for that action," Luxon said.

Luxon said there are three things the Government could do if it was "really serious" about the issue.

He said the changes police made in 2020 to its pursuit policy needed to be reviewed again, a dedicated gang taskforce set-up and there needed to be a look at the firearms prohibition orders.

Burdett earlier said it was "a possibility" changes to the police's pursuit policy - namely a pursuit only being justified when the threat posed by the fleeing vehicle(s) outweighs the risk of harm the pursuit creates - were influencing people's behaviour.

Luxon said crime comes back to issues of poverty, equality, the economy and the cost of living.

"It's hard work the causes of crime, but you also do have to have a set-up where you actually say 'hey listen, in this country we have rights and responsibilities to each other'. Because I can tell you, the hurt, the pain, the suffering, the worry, the anxiety, for those shop owners, is just as important a consideration, if not a more important consideration."

Minister of Police Poto Williams was quoted by Newshub on Tuesday saying ram-raids only make up 1% of all retail crime - National's police spokesperson Mark Mitchell had said ram-raids contribute to a 31% increase in retail crime.

"I would challenge the National Party to come up with more than cheap slogans such as 'soft on crime'," Williams said.

Williams said the police are focused on tackling retail crime and had created the national retail investigation support unit in November 2021, to focus on repeat retail offending.

Williams said the Government has also rolled out fog cannons to small businesses.

Newshub also quoted Williams as saying that since Labour came into power in 2017, there had been an increase of 382 police officers working in the Auckland districts. She said this will continue to rise as Labour moves towards their target of 1800 additional police officers nationwide by the end of June 2023.

"Under our record investment there are now more police officers on the beat than ever before," Williams said.

Burdett told Breakfast police numbers were a "little short" in New Zealand compared with the UN's recommendations of one police officer for 450 people.

"We've got one police officer for 496 people ... but more police doesn't necessarily equate to less crime. It's how those police officers are used," Burdett responded when asked if more frontline cops are needed.