IR-01-23-4185
19 April 2023
Holly Wilson
[FYI request #21807 email]
Tēnā koe Holly
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request of 12 February 2023, in
which you asked for information regarding ram raids.
My response to each part of your request can be found below.
Background
Police has received a high volume of OIA requests for similar information on ram raids
since early 2021. In July 2022 Police proactively released two official responses which
cover requests for ram raid data prior to April 2017 to June 2022. This can be found on
the Police website here:
https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/retail-crime-and-
ram-raids.
You can read more about the work Police is doing to work with affected small retailers
through the Retail Crime Prevention Programme on the Police website here:
https://www.police.govt.nz/advice-services/businesses-and-organisations/retail-crime-
prevention-hub/retail-crime-prevention.
Response
1.
An outline or summary of criteria classifying a ‘ram raid’ used in the OIA release to
RNZ (July 2022)
2.
An outline or summary of official criteria classifying a ‘ram raid’ used by NZ Police,
including any documentation explaining the category ‘ram raid’ or any briefer
description of how NZ Police classify offending according to the category 'ram raid'
The criteria used for classifying a ram raid used in various OIA releases is defined on the
Police website linked above:
https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/retail-crime-
and-ram-raids.
You can also find a definition here:
https://www.police.govt.nz/advice-
services/businesses-and-organisations/retail-crime-prevention-hub/victims-ram-raids-
aggravated-robbery.
For your confirmation, a ram raid is a burglary or robbery in which a vehicle has been
used to enter, or attempt to enter, a premises.
As such, I have refused parts 1 and 2 of your request under section 18(d) of the OIA as
the information is publicly available.
3.
The quantity and frequency of ‘ram raids’ reported (whether charges were laid or
not) national y, using the NZ Police criteria/classification, by month or week
(whichever is more appropriate) since 21 July 2022.
The data provided to requestors and published on the Police website covers a time period
from April 2017 to June 2022. To give you a more accurate picture of data since that was
published, we have made the decision to provide you with data from 1 July 2022 to 28
February 2023, broken down by month. The data provided is using the above definitions
of a ram raid.
The data provided in this response to your request is an update of the data, using the
same methodology, published previously on the Police website here:
https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/retail-crime-and-ram-raids.
As described on the Police website, a ram raid is not an offence with its own offence
code. This makes col ation of data problematic. The data is drawn from a dataset that can
change as investigations progress and hence the data, even for a similar period, can
differ if analysed on two different days. However, the data table is indicative due to there
being no offence code, as the data was collated by text mining and a manual search of
free-text fields – i.e., searching for certain text in the narrative describing the incident.
For these reasons, comparisons between the figures provided here and any other
releases of the same data may show some variation.
A breakdown of data can be found below:
Month
Ram Raids
Jul-2022
77
Aug-2022
115
Sep-2022
86
Oct-2022
75
Nov-2022
72
Dec-2022
73
Jan-2023
55
Feb-2023
31
4.
If there are a range of offences that fall under the classification of a ‘ram raid’, please
break down instances of ‘ram raids’ reported by each offence.
As mentioned above, a ram raid is not an offence with its own offence code. Due to the
method data is collated (i.e. by text mining), Police cannot break down this data to
respond to the question without significant manual analysis of individual cases. Therefore,
this part of your request is refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, as it would require
substantial collation and research.
5.
The number of charges or prosecutions related to ‘ram raids’ under this classification
or range of offences falling under 'ram raids', carried out over the same period (July
2022 to the most recent records).
For the period from January to December 2022, 551 offenders were prosecuted for
offences relating to ‘ram raid’ related offences, In January and February 2023 a total of 43
offenders have been prosecuted.
Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police
proactively releases some information and documents that may be of interest to the
public. An anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on the New
Zealand Police website.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Mere Wilson Tuala-Fata
Director
Prevention: Innovation & Change
Iwi & Communities
