Crime & Safety
At an American mom’s night last week, the topic of crime and safety in Auckland came up in discussion. I feel like Americans in particular are very concerned about safety, police brutality, and gun violence. It is something we’re bombarded with in the United States and is often front of mind when moving. I don’t make a secret of the fact that a big motivating factor for our move was the prevalence of gun violence in schools. I was horrified when we took a parent tour for our local elementary school in Austin, Texas, and the administrators spent 20 of the 60 minute tour on their live shooter protocol. It did not make me feel better about putting my kids in their care. Surely places with reasonable gun laws would be better.
With that being said, New Zealand isn’t perfect. Here’s my take on the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to crime and safety in New Zealand.
Violent crime is relatively low. From August 2018 to August 2019, there were just over 200 homicides and related offences.
Gun violence is also quite low, especially compared to the United States. NewsHub had an excellent article comparing the two countries. My favorite excerpt is:
In the US state of Louisiana, with 4.7 million people, 526 people died in a gun-related homicide in 2016, according to statistics gathered by 24/7 Wall St from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which track the number of gun-related deaths in each US state.
In New Zealand, also with 4.7 million people, just nine people died in a gun-related homicide that year, New Zealand police statistics show. In fact, more people were killed in New Zealand after being stabbed (15 people in 2016).
The mass murder in Christchurch last year was a shocking blow to most New Zealanders. Unlike in the US, there was an immediate push to change gun laws, a buy-back program was put in place, and there is still a lot of pressure to make sure something like this never happens again. And to put things in perspective, the last mass shooting in New Zealand occurred in 1990. Clearly the rate of mass shootings in New Zealand is significantly lower than in the US.
Drugs are a real problem, especially meth. In New Zealand, methamphetamine is known as “P” and there is a significant problem throughout the country. Estimates show that 3% of the population, or about 138,000 people use P in New Zealand. Contrast that with the U.S. where regular users hovers between .2% and .6% of the population and you can see how widespread the issue is. Many AirBnbs have sensors installed to monitor whether or not the tenants are using the house to cook P. These signs are there to warn potential methheads not to turn the house into a cook house. Which leads me to the next point…
There are a lot of gangs. In fact, New Zealand is home to the first non-US based branch of the Hell’s Angels, which was established in 1961. The Mongrel Mob is the gang with the largest membership, and it is primarily Maori and Pacific Islander. There are a number of other gangs, some of which focus on different ethnicities, many are motorcycle gangs, and they very in how “bad” they really are. The impression I get is that most of them focus on drugs, guns, and petty crime.
Small theft is a concern. While the overall numbers are low, petty theft is on the forefront of many Kiwi’s minds. I can’t tell you how many Facebook posts I see with security camera footage of someone’s hose being stolen or a car being rummaged through in the night. There were about 1,400 burglaries per 100,000 in New Zealand. For the US, that number is closer to 700.
Police are well trained and don’t generally carry firearms. Policemen/women carry pepper spray and batons. Guns are locked in the trunks of their cars and can be accessed, but not quickly. Police go through an initial 16 week training course, and then are in a probationary training period for an additional two years. There are about 11,000 police officers for the country, about 1 per 427. I’ve found the police to be very low profile in New Zealand. They make traffic stops (though more routinely you’ll receive a traffic ticket from a speed camera, not an actual person) and help with car accidents. They’ll have a small presence at large gatherings and festivals. They are generally approachable, nice, and love giving all of the dogs in Auckland a good belly rub. Bonus tip: the “911” equivalent in New Zealand is 111.
I feel safe. While I still take reasonable precautions, especially while out at night and/or by myself, I don’t feel unsafe in New Zealand. People are generally kind and helpful, especially in Auckland. I have a bigger fear of some sort of natural disaster - we are living on an active volcano range after all - than of some sort of major criminal undertaking (knock on wood). I also feel that my kids are much safer here. There are emergency drills at school (again - natural disasters can happen at any time) but I feel much more confident that they are going to come home to me every afternoon.
