Timaru Central

Timaru Central recorded 283 offences in the last 12 months. It has about 261 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 Timaru Central is theft, with 214 recorded offences in the last 12 months — about 76% of all offences recorded there. The next most common is assault (42).

Recorded offences in Timaru Central have risen 67.9% 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.

Timaru Central ranks 12 of 331 suburbs in Canterbury Region by crime rate, where 1 is the highest rate. This is a ranking of recorded crime, not a safety rating, and it compares Timaru Central only with other suburbs in Canterbury Region — not with the rest of New Zealand.

Figures for Timaru Central, Timaru 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.