NZ Police: Keeping communities informed through data

In November 2016, NZ Police launched policedata.nz to provide easy access to Police crime data through a number of interactive reports that are updated monthly.

A variety of interactive reports and visualisations are accessible at http://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publications-statistics/data-and-statistics/policedatanz including:

  • Where and when crimes occurred across New Zealand
  • Offender and victim demographics, and
  • Activities (crime and non-crime related) that demand Police time

Montage have assisted NZ Police to make the information as easy to understand and interact with as possible through the use of Tableau software. The benefits have included

  • Visual, engaging presentation of data
  • Information is easily filtered and interacted with
  • Crime trends by time, type and location are simple to see and understand

These reports are designed to support partners and communities to access Police data to help inform their planning, decision-making and policy development. The reports may also be of interest to media, researchers and others.

The data sets behind the policedata.nz reports have been designed in consultation with Statistics NZ, who continues to work with Police, as it does with all government agencies who publish official statistics, to provide oversight and advice regarding the statistics they produce.

Police has also consulted with the office of the Privacy Commissioner to ensure privacy issues were properly considered and addressed. The reports contain anonymised data.

Note: In accessing the data, you should not to attempt to re-identify individuals or speculate on the identity of individuals. Police reminds you of your obligations under the Privacy Act to protect the privacy of individuals.