New Beat Team For Rotorua And One Year Anniversary Of Community Beat Teams

Scoop

2 days ago

Rotorua has a team of six Police starting on the beat across the CBD.
'Rotorua is launching their first beat team and later in the quarter we will see other beat teams operating across the Bay of Plenty and other districts,' says Police Commissioner Richard Chambers.
The city becomes the fifth to have a dedicated beat team.
'The public and retailers have welcomed the beat teams in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch and other centres will benefit from them too. A beat team has also just been launched in New Plymouth.
'We know that certain crime types have gone down in the areas beat teams operate. That shows the impact visible policing has. We want to see other communities experience that too.
'While the results from the first year of beat teams are encouraging, it is also clear ongoing focus is needed to drive down theft and violent crime. This remains a priority for Police,' says Commissioner Chambers.
Crime reductions by beat location of the last 12 months to April 2025 compared with previous 12 months:
• Auckland has seen a reduction in assault by 9%, theft by 21%, and robbery by 25%
• Wellington has seen a reduction in sexual assault by 21%, robbery by 22% and unlawful entry by 7%
• Christchurch has seen a huge reduction in robbery of 67%, unlawful entry by 29% and sexual assault by 16%.
'It's great to see hard work from our staff is paying off and I expect to see similar results around the country as more teams roll out,' says Commissioner Chambers.
The three new beat teams have done 14,108 hours of foot patrols on the beat since starting in July last year to end of April this year. This is an increase of 189% from the same period in 2023-2024.
Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson says it's great to be starting a team in Rotorua.
'We have already done a lot of work with our partners over the recent years to improve safety in our city. With the Rotorua Lakes Council and Māori wardens we created a CBD safety plan that has already shown results for the people and businesses in our city.
'Now we'll have a beat team to support this ongoing work to keep our residents, retailers, and businesses safe.'
'We all know we face some complex issues in our city which require a joint approach of agencies, iwi, and community groups working together to solve them. For our part, we want to ensure everyone who comes into our city feels safe – whether they live here, work here, or are visiting. I'm feeling really excited about having our team in place and I'm already looking forward to the next teams we'll roll out,' says Superintendent Anderson.