Blitz prevented worse offending - police

  • 24/08/2015
Police on the beat in Auckland
Police on the beat in Auckland

By 3 News online staff

An Auckland police blitz has nabbed a number of bail-breachers and drink drivers.

An extra 80 officers were on the beat over the weekend, targeting vehicle and property crime at city hotspots.

In total there were 30 arrests, 18 warnings dished out, six stolen cars recovered, 25 incidents involving juveniles and 20 people caught drink driving.

Acting area commander Inspector Vaughn Graham says the operation picked up a lot of minor crime before it could develop into something more serious.

"There were a number of arrests for bail breaches, which is a little bit disappointing given that these people are on pretty strict conditions not to leave home," says Insp Graham.

"There was a high number of people picked up for drink driving, which is a little bit of a worry."

Twenty of the 1850 who underwent a breath test were over the limit.

"One's too many, to be honest. It only takes one person to create quite a bit of trauma on our roads."

He says the weekend blitz was based on intelligence.

"Some of those arrests were people that we were targeting – people we knew would be breaching bail, people that had been given pretty strict bail conditions in court not to be out, and we found them in the city, also on the trains. We're pretty confident we got in front of those guys before they could commit further offending."

Despite the figures, Insp Graham says Auckland is a "relatively safe city", and the beefed-up police presence would have made it even more so.

"You can't measure public reassurance and confidence – we've had a lot of feedback from members of the public that they really enjoyed seeing us out this weekend."

3 News