Bay of Plenty Police will be ramping up its efforts to curb the rising number of burglaries being committed across the region.

Figures recently released by Statistics New Zealand show there were 6042 cases of burglaries, unlawful entry with intent, and break and enter across the region during the 2015/16 financial year to May.

Latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show the number of burglaries and related offences increased by 17.6 per cent during the 2015/16 financial year to May. File Photo.

When compared to the same period during the 2014/15 financial year, the data shows the number of incidents have increased by 17.6 per cent (4980 cases).

Broken down by the four policing areas in the BOP district, this financial year to May there were 1800 cases in Western Bay (up 29.7 per cent), 879 in the Eastern Bay (up 13.3 per cent), 2046 in the Rotorua area (up 23.6 per cent), and 1317 in the Taupo area (up 26.7 per cent).

Bay of Plenty District prevention manager Inspector Stephen Bullock says police will be undertaking a new approach to reduce the numbers over the next two months both locally and nationally.

'Acknowledging that there has been an increase in burglary offending, just last week police leadership announced further steps to counter burglaries.

'Police Commissioner Mike Bush says he is determined to tackle burglaries. Mr Bush has an expectation that all house-break-ins will be attended by police staff.”

This means either constabulary or scene of crime officers will attend a burglary 'within a reasonable time frame”.

Police will also lift the priority of dwelling burglary (house break-ins) from a ‘volume' crime to a priority offence, with extra support from their Intelligence group, says Stephen.

'Police recognise burglaries are invasive, personal and upsetting, and have a huge impact on families and individuals.

'We look carefully at these figures and would like to reassure people that we are trying hard to bring down the number of burglaries,” says Stephen.

The latest crime data released by Statistics NZ last week also shows that during the 2015/16 financial year to May ‘robbery, extortion and related offences' (213 incidents), and ‘theft and related offences' (12207) were also up by 15.6 and 0.2 per cent respectively.

But in a piece of good news: ‘assaults' (4263) and ‘sexual assaults' (414) were both down by 1.8 and 18.8 per cent respectively.

‘'Abduction and Kidnapping' remained unchanged with 36 incidents reported in both the 2015/16 and 2014/15 financial years to May.

To view the latest crime statistics for the Bay of Plenty visit the Statistics NZ website.