Canterbury’s top police officer says the region is holding up well against crime despite the pressures of rising living costs and fuel shortages, with some categories of offending actually falling.

Superintendent Tony Hill, Canterbury Police District Commander, told Chris Lynch News there had been no broad increase in crime linked to the fuel crisis, though officers were keeping a close eye on emerging trends.

“We aren’t seeing an increase that’s directly related to the impact of the fuel crisis,” Hill said. “The public are probably doing their very best to manage their budgets.”

There has been a small rise in diesel thefts from locations other than service stations, but Hill said petrol drive-offs had actually declined, something he described as encouraging.

“We’re monitoring it very carefully and making sure we’re around in those locations that we might suspect to get thefts from. We’re monitoring individuals who have been involved in particularly large-scale thefts of fuel in the past.”

Hill also addressed the ongoing search for missing woman Rowena Walker, whose case transferred from Tasman District to Canterbury Police.

Investigators are treating her disappearance seriously and are appealing for public help.

“We’ve got a whole team wrapped around that. We’re exploring every avenue. If anyone out there has information or might hold that one clue to link her and show us where she is or what’s happened to her, we’d really like to hear from them.”

Asked how long police pursue missing persons cases before scaling back, Hill was direct.

“I don’t think we ever give up. You’ve probably seen incidents in recent years where we’ve solved things from decades ago. That’s one of the things we should be really proud about in New Zealand Police.”

On road safety, Hill acknowledged Canterbury was below its historical average for road deaths so far this year, but warned against complacency as winter approaches.

“The posted speed limit is not a target. People absolutely have to drive to the conditions and their abilities. And we need to be patient. If someone is driving below the posted limit because that’s their capability and the speed they’re confident at, we need to respect that.”

Canterbury is currently among the top two police districts nationally for speed tickets issued on open roads, with Hill saying officers were policing rural roads heavily.

Turning to a series of violent robberies in Christchurch, Hill acknowledged the incidents had unsettled some businesses but said they involved a small group of known offenders.

He said Canterbury Police had doubled its youth crime team in response and was bringing in Oranga Tamariki to work alongside officers.

“We’ve just increased from one youth crime team to two. We’re exploring what are the best ways to get these people out of being persistent offenders for the rest of their life. Whilst they’re this young we need to work and explore everything we can.”

“Generally the team has been working with these offenders for quite some time. They know the people they’re associated with and they’re really good at tracking them down pretty quickly.”

He said the visible presence of bollards outside some Christchurch shopping centres was a sad reflection of the times but supported retailers taking steps to protect themselves.

“Store owners should have the right to do what they need to do to protect themselves and make things more difficult. We’ve got a role to play in terms of investigation, apprehension and some prevention activities around those youth as well.”

On broader crime statistics, Hill pointed to strong progress across the district’s four key policing targets, including a significant improvement in retail crime resolution.

“We’re well ahead of that target. We’ve got a retail crime team resourcing that really well, targeting those persistent offenders who are out shoplifting and causing crime in the retail sector.”

He also confirmed the beat policing team operating in Christchurch’s central city and malls was having a genuine impact, with officers connecting directly with shop owners and moving quickly on emerging issues rather than simply dispersing offenders.

On Selwyn, one of New Zealand’s fastest growing districts, Hill confirmed that 24-hour policing had been made permanent following a successful trial period.

“We still believe we need a 24/7 response out in the Selwyn area. The population is growing and it’s going to be a big place very soon. We monitor that very carefully and have conversations about where we might need to put resources in the future.”