Brazen thieves are posting videos of themselves stealing cars as police issue a warning over offenders using social media to gain notoriety.
The warning comes amid a spate of ram-raids and attempted robberies over the past week and concern over an increase in crime.
On Thursday detective inspector Karen Bright told AM police are concerned social media is playing a role.
Bright said police take the issues very seriously but the community also has its role to play.
"We treat them seriously, we do absolutely everything we can, we use a range of investigative tools and we really want to identify those responsible so that this offending does not continue.
"When we've got 11-year-olds out in the middle of the night driving stolen cars and crashing into retail stores, there is a bigger problem out there.
"There is a part that other people can play including social media, parents, the wider community, keeping these kids in school and people who are receiving these stolen goods. There's a lot of things that can be done and it's not just a police issue to solve."
It comes as videos showing people stealing cars and fleeing police are popping up online.
One video, which is filmed from the back of a fleeing car, shows a police car with its lights trying to pull them over. The drivers don't slow down, instead speeding off until the police are out of sight.
Another video, from the same social media account, shows someone smashing a car's window before ripping out the ignition and hot-wiring it.
A third shows someone hot wiring a car and then driving it at 140km/h down the road. Later in the video police can be seen chasing the car.
The videos all come from the same anonymous Instagram account which has numerous other videos of cars being stolen. Another account, believed to be run from someone out of Wellington, shows similar things. One of the videos from the account shows three cars all with their ignitions ripped out.
A security expert told Newshub Late on Tuesday the rise in ram-raid style incidents is a "multi-faceted problem".
"Certainly in the last few months, crime has become more of a political animal therefore it's in the front of people's minds," Security consultant at Scope Precision Intelligence Hamish Kerr said.
"Ram raids, in general, are not new. They have been happening for many, many years, decades in fact but in the current environment there are a lot more conditions that we need to think about."
"The perception at the moment is criminals are undertaking offending with very little police response and that is not exactly reality, as we know the police are working hard but the perception is, currently criminals are doing what they want when they want."
