Recently released data from police reveals a year-on-year decline in the number of ram raids nationwide that were logged in 2024.
Police data shows 207 incidents recorded nationwide in 2024, a drop of almost 60 percent from the 495 incidents that were recorded the previous year.
Police logged 68 ram raids nationwide in the first quarter of 2024 before recording 55, 39 and 44 incidents in subsequent quarters.
Police data shows that 714 ram raids were logged nationwide in 2022 - the highest annual figure since 2017.
Police say data on ram raids is only available from 1 April 2017, following the establishment of a retail and commercial premise location code.
Four hundred and ten ram raids were logged nationwide in 2021, 139 in 2020, 180 in 2019, 126 in 2018 and 100 in 2017.
The three police districts that make up the Auckland region - Auckland City, Counties Manukau and Waitemata - logged 59 ram raids in 2024, a sharp drop from the 173 incidents recorded in the area in the previous year.
Bay of Plenty came in second with 33 ram raids in 2024 followed by Waikato with 31 incidents.
By comparison, Bay of Plenty logged 80 ram raids in 2023, while Waikato recorded 83.
Two hundred and fifty offenders who were involved in ram raids were prosecuted nationwide in 2024, down from 657 a year earlier.
Sixty-seven offenders were referred to youth services in 2024, down from 178 in 2023.
The number of offenders included in the three age brackets up to age 17 who were involved in ram raids similarly declined last year.
Information released under the Official Information Act last year revealed that more than three-quarters of police proceedings for ram raids between January 2019 and April 2024 had been against offenders younger than 18 years old.
Latest police data shows 157 offenders aged between 14 and 17 were involved in ram raids in 2024, a drop from 440 the previous year.
Thirty-seven offenders aged between 10 and 13 were involved in ram raids in 2024, a drop from 86 a year earlier.
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