Friday, October 2, 2015
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Prosecutions lowest since 2003 BY DAISY HUDSON
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Police say Mid Cantabrians should be feeling safer after the number of criminal prosecutions heard in the Ashburton District Court fell to their lowest number since 2003. A change in police attitudes, a falling crime rate, and an increase in the number of pre-charge warnings are all believed to have contributed to the decrease, which saw the number of prosecutions drop by 28 per cent in the year
ending June 2015. Figures released by Statistics New Zealand show 790 criminal cases were heard in the Ashburton District Court last year, with 597 of those resulting in convictions. That was a significant drop from 2013, when 1107 cases were heard. Mid/South Canterbury area commander inspector Dave Gaskin said there had been an attitude shift among police staff regarding prevention and other methods of dealing with offend-
ers, which was starting to show positive results. “There are alternative ways to deal with people, rather than putting them in front of the criminal justice system,” he said. That included pre-charge warnings and police diversion. “It is a good result, there’s no doubt,” he said.
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