An apparent directive within police not to investigate fuel theft below $150 is unacceptable and will anger and disappoint service stations, the Motor Trade Association says.
It has also prompted the country’s top cop to issue a reminder to some of his most senior bosses.
“Service stations are the most preyed on retailers in the country,” Motor Trade Association head of advocacy James McDowall said.
“They provide an essential service and deserve the full protection and support of NZ Police and Government. This directive, if enacted, would seriously erode faith in both.”
The Police Commissioner has since said the memo mentioning this was confusing and unhelpful, and he’d reminded district commanders that they should continue to catch offenders regardless of any thresholds.
RNZ reported the existence of a police directive from March 26 applying “nationally standardised value thresholds” when assessing theft and fraud files.
The value thresholds were $200 for general theft, $150 for petrol drive off, $500 for shoplifting, $100 for fraud (like paywave, online, scam), and $500 for all other fraud.
McDowall said it was understandable that police had to prioritise offending, but to ignore what would amount to thousands of crimes every year was unacceptable.
“Last year, there was almost 30,000 instances of theft from service stations, according to NZ Police’s own data.
“Many of those would be under the reported threshold – you can fill up most cars for under $150 – and therefore not investigated.
“Frankly, there is already widespread belief amongst service stations that police do not take fuel theft seriously, and this only reinforces that view.”
The association was now seeking urgent clarification, McDowall said.
“We respect that there should be a nationwide, standardised approach to retail crime, rather than regional variations.
“But the standard approach should be that every theft hurts a hard-working business, operating on slim margins.”
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the recent memo that referred to thresholds for retail was “confusing and unhelpful”.
“I have made retail crime one of the priorities for the police executive and that means increasing the focus on it.
“The memo has been confusing and unhelpful and does not meet my expectations on retail crime or the expectations of the retail community.”
As a result, he’d asked for a reminder to be issued to all district commanders that they should continue to catch offenders where possible, regardless of the memo’s thresholds.
“It is my expectation Police continue to work hard to catch offenders wherever possible.
“Our role is to enforce the law. If we were to take our focus off that, we are giving license to offenders to commit crime. That will not happen.”
He said retail crime was increasing and police were working closely with the retail community to address it.
“I want them to have confidence that we will continue to do so.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was good to see Chambers “quickly correct the memo”, which he said was “wrong and not appropriate”.
“We want our police helping New Zealanders, protecting and serving us and hunting down crime at all sorts of types,” Luxon said.
Extracted in full from: https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360703004/are-police-not-investigating-fuel-drive-offs-valued-less-150
