Bicycle thefts

Tony James made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police

The request was partially successful.

From: Tony James

Dear New Zealand Police,

Please provide, broken down by police district, and the last five calendar years:

* The number of thefts of bicycles.

* The number of people charged with theft of a bicycle

* The number of charges for theft of a bicycle theft

* The number of bicycles recovered and return to their owners.

Yours faithfully,

Tony James

Link to this

New Zealand Police

Hello Tony

I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act1982 (OIA) request
for the information below.
Your request is being actioned pursuant to the OIA.

Ngā mihi

 

Ministerial Services

Police National Headquarters

 

[1]wordmark transparent

 

 

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: Tony James

Dear New Zealand Police,

I was wondering how you were getting along with my request? It is well past 20 working days and you didn't extend the due date (which you're entitled to do and I would have happily agreed to if you had asked).

Yours faithfully,

Tony James

Link to this

New Zealand Police

Good morning
 
Your request is in final review and quality check and is due to be sent
this week. I am sorry we missed the deadline on this one. In order to
prevent agencies taking advantage of the extension allowance, it is
limited to cases where a request requires either a large amount of either
collation and research or external consultation. In this case, the
response is late due to staff movement and their replacement being
injured. We will have it to you as soon as we can and we appreciate your
patience with the delay.
 

Ngā mihi

 

 

Renée Maunder

Senior Advisor

Ministerial Services

 

P +64 4 470 7119

DDI 44419

E [1][email address]

 

-----Tony James <[FOI #10254 email]> wrote:
-----
To: OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police
<[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: Tony James <[FOI #10254 email]>
Date: 10/06/2019 12:13AM
Subject: Re: Official Information request - Bicycle thefts

Dear New Zealand Police,
I was wondering how you were getting along with my request?  It is well
past 20 working days and you didn't extend the due date (which you're
entitled to do and I would have happily agreed to if you had asked).
Yours faithfully,
Tony James

show quoted sections

Link to this

New Zealand Police

 

Dear Tony,

 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

 

Thanks for your Official Information Act request dated 5 May 2019 in which
you requested information on bicycle theft as follows:

 

Please provide, broken down by police district and the last five calendar
years:

 

·          The number of thefts of bicycles

·          The number of people charged with theft of a bicycle

·          The number of charges for theft of a bicycle

·          The number of bicycles recovered and returned to their owners

 

The tables below, broken down by Police District for the period from July
2014 to March 2019, refer to the following:

 

·          Reported victimisations for the ‘Theft of bicycles’

·          No. of offenders charged for the ‘Theft of a Bicycle’

·          Proceedings against offenders for the ‘Theft of a Bicycle’
resulting in court action

 

Police does not publish statistics on recovered items for theft (i.e.
bicycles). Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section
18(g) of the OIA.

 

Table 1. Reported Victimisations for the Theft of Bicycles

  Jul - Dec 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Jan - Mar 2019
Northland 25 27 46 63 55 4
Waitemata 57 126 183 167 113 40
Auckland City 201 467 719 546 374 175
Counties/Manukau 38 132 150 137 82 24
Waikato 130 273 281 451 212 48
Bay Of Plenty 115 208 212 300 177 58
Central 104 228 232 288 184 46
Eastern 93 214 245 297 161 46
Wellington 158 396 309 351 325 100
Tasman 109 173 152 178 125 43
Canterbury 274 704 759 697 721 211
Southern 92 106 100 107 101 37
Total 1396 3054 3388 3582 2630 832

 

 

Table 2. No. of Offenders Charged for the Theft of a Bicycle
                                     

  Jul - Dec 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Jan - Mar 2019
Northland 0 3 5 7 3 0
Waitemata 0 12 7 5 1 1
Auckland City 7 7 33 53 12 3
Counties/Manukau 1 5 2 6 0 1
Waikato 3 8 9 14 5 1
Bay Of Plenty 6 14 20 16 13 5
Central 3 6 17 12 9 4
Eastern 4 7 11 17 6 1
Wellington 1 11 5 13 17 4
Tasman 2 0 4 6 4 1
Canterbury 1 14 15 15 21 6
Southern 0 5 6 5 4 3
Total 28 92 134 169 95 30

 

Table 3. Proceedings against Offenders for the Theft of a Bicycle
resulting in Court Action

  Jul - Dec 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Jan - Mar 2019
Northland 0 4 7 10 5 0
Waitemata 0 14 9 6 1 1
Auckland City 10 8 37 57 12 3
Counties/Manukau 1 5 2 8 0 1
Waikato 3 8 10 15 5 1
Bay Of Plenty 6 14 20 17 14 5
Central 3 7 20 12 9 5
Eastern 4 7 12 19 6 1
Wellington 1 14 6 14 24 4
Tasman 2 0 4 6 4 1
Canterbury 1 15 15 17 25 6
Southern 0 5 7 8 4 3
Total 31 101 149 189 109 31

 

 

Please note that information for Table 1 – ‘Reported Victimisations for
Theft of bicycles’ – are publically available on [1]policedata.nz.
Specifically, the information can be extracted from the “Victimisations
(police stations) Report”.

 

A proceeding counts each separate occasion when Police deal with an
alleged offender for one or more offences. The tables above present the
number of offenders or counts of all proceedings involving at least one
‘Theft of a bicycle’ offence.

 

Proceedings are usually classified according to the most serious offence
that the offender is dealt with on that occasion. This offence might not
be for the ‘Theft of a bicycle’. Please note therefore that these figures
may differ to figures published elsewhere.

 

Although for the reason above not all of the information you have sought
has been provided with this letter, I trust my response is helpful. If you
have any questions, please feel free to contact me via
[email address].

 

If you are not satisfied with my response to your request you have the
right to complain to the Office of the Ombudsmen and seek an investigation
and review of my decision.

 

Regards,

 

 

Obert Cinco

Team Manager - Reporting

Evidence Based Policing Centre

New Zealand Police

===============================================================

WARNING

The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.

Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately

References

Visible links
1. https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publ...

Link to this

From: Tony James

Dear New Zealand Police,

Thanks Obert for your reply.

The information is interesting, and it confirms what I suspected, there are many, many bike thefts, but far fewer people are ever held to account for stealing them. As the number of people cycling has increased, the number of thefts has increased as well. Some are no doubt opportunists, but I again suspect, especially with e-bikes becoming more popular, it may become more organised.

One thought, however. I asked for the last five calendar years - which I thought would have been the easiest data for you (after financial year) to provide, but you've instead given two partial years and three full years. Also the "tables" are a little difficult to read when the data is simply pasted into an email, but I can get the general gist.

Thanks again for this information.

Yours sincerely

Tony James

Link to this

T Edwards left an annotation ()

Section 15A(1)(b) allows an agency to extend for consultation reasons. The Police mention that consultation extends to only include "external" consultation. That's not true. Guidance about this can be found here: http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/syste...

The Office of the Ombudsman has noted that "consultation" extends to the requester, agency staff etc, so I am confused as to why the Police thought it necessary to state what they did about the overuse of this provision when they didn't actually use it, nor were their reasons allowed under the extension grounds (admittance of breach).

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
New Zealand Police only: