Dunedin police are placing a greater emphasis on monitoring offenders released on bail in a pre-emptive strike against repeat offending.
Sergeant Tony Ritchie, of the Dunedin intelligence unit, said the tactic was a continuation of a national police focus on monitoring offenders on bail in a concerted effort to move away from "fire brigade policing".
"Policing has [changed] in past years and will continue to shift emphasis to crime prevention," he said.
"There is a direct correlation in Dunedin between the number of bail checks and reported crime."
Officers completed between 140 and 200 bail checks a week "without too much trouble", he said. An average of 166 checks were made a week over the past three weeks.
There were 78 breaches of bail in the Dunedin-Clutha area in June.
The 43 people in the police's active bail system are checked at least once a night.
A further 72 remain "on hold" - not in the active bail system - for a variety of reasons.
Sgt Ritchie said bail checks represented a valuable use of police time, citing the "widely held belief" that 20% of offenders committed 80% of crime.
"If you accept this premise, then it stands to reason that if you have controls on those offenders you will reduce crime, crash and victimisation."
Bail conditions varied depending on the individual, he said.
Common conditions included living at a specified residence, adhering to a curfew, not consuming alcohol or non-prescription drugs and not associating with named persons, Sgt Ritchie said.
Offenders can also be barred from driving motor vehicles or entering the central business district or specified residences.
Bail checks were often initiated by police, who co-ordinated their efforts to ensure the checks did not take up unnecessary police time.
Checks did not include visiting the dwellings of those on home detention, he said.
