Inspector Kelvin Lloyd said police were concerned about pockets of offending across Dunedin, mainly in the greater Forbury and Kew area, from Corstorphine to St Kilda and St Clair, the North Dunedin student area, Opoho and Ravensbourne.
Police suspected most of the "unsophisticated'' offending was being done by young people and he called on parents to exercise greater vigilance.
"It's basic parenting stuff, like [thinking about] ‘what are your kids doing at day and at night?' and ‘where are they?','' he said.
"We've stepped up some of the prevention which we're doing in those areas, but we can't deal with it solely on our own.
"If kids are turning up at home with stuff there's no way they can afford, parents need to be asking those questions of these kids about where this stuff has come from.
"It's about the community taking responsibility for some of this by being vigilant and reporting suspicious behaviour.''
Many stolen items, such as game consoles, laptops and computers, were not being used by offenders, Insp Lloyd said.
"They've got to be going to a market somewhere.
"As long as we've got receivers [of stolen items] in our community, we will always have offenders who will commit the offences to get the commodity.''
Parents could not necessarily be expected to report their children, but police expected them to "at least have that conversation and take on some parental responsibility'', Insp Lloyd said.
The impact burglaries had on victims was clearly not something offenders thought about, he said.
"A lot of offenders don't realise the effect their entry into someone's house has on the people who live there.
"We see it first-hand every day.''
Victims who had not lost anything were often more affected than people who had items taken, because of the invasion of their space and privacy, he said.
