Waiau

Waiau recorded 16 offences in the last 12 months. It has about 327 residents, which is below the 500-resident threshold we use for comparing rates, so its crime rate per 1,000 people is not a reliable comparison with other suburbs. Judge it on the offence count, not the rate.

The most common offence category in Waiau is burglary, with 7 recorded offences in the last 12 months — about 44% of all offences recorded there. The next most common is theft (6).

Recorded offences in Waiau have risen 75.0% over the most recent three-month period compared with the previous three months. This is a three-month comparison, not a year-on-year one, and short windows move around a lot in small areas.

Waiau ranks 45 of 157 suburbs in Bay of Plenty Region by crime rate, where 1 is the highest rate. This is a ranking of recorded crime, not a safety rating, and it compares Waiau only with other suburbs in Bay of Plenty Region — not with the rest of New Zealand.

Figures for Waiau, Western Bay of Plenty District come from New Zealand Police recorded victimisation data, published through police.govt.nz, and are grouped to Stats NZ Statistical Area 2 (SA2) boundaries. They count offences recorded by Police, so they reflect reporting and recording practice as well as underlying offending.