Summarised by Centrist
Ram raids have collapsed from their 2022 peak, dropping from 86 attacks in a single month to just 84 in the first ten months of 2025.
Retailers and youth workers say the real “solution” was physical hardening, bollards, cages, roller doors, fog cannons, and reinforced glass.
Sandringham retailer Anna Zheng says her shop is finally safe because of $9000 steel posts she and her husband paid for themselves. Another business owner describes the new reality bluntly: “Auckland is no longer the Auckland I grew up in.”
The police agree that government-funded deterrents and targeted crackdowns on repeat offenders drove the drop. But the core drivers of youth offending remain.
Youth advocates warn the underlying problems, violence at home, truancy, drugs, and housing instability are unchanged.
One South Auckland teacher says many ram raiders were the same 12- and 13-year-olds who never returned to school after COVID lockdowns. “Those are likely 16- and 17-year-olds now who have missed that whole chunk of secondary education.”
And while ram raids plummeted, other offences surged. Christchurch is now facing swarming thefts and violent smash-and-grabs. Aggravated robberies and assaults are rising.
Youth Court charges for burglary and theft peaked in 2023–24 before falling slightly last year. As one retailer puts it, “They’re committing crimes in different ways, but that’s just as disruptive.”
Since January 2022, prosecution rates for ram raids range from 63 percent in Auckland City to over 83 percent in Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
Read more over at The Post (paywalled)
