The Police Commissioner says he can't guarantee ram raiders will be chased by officers after he announced changes to police's fleeing driver policy.
Commissioner Andrew Coster on Tuesday announced police would change the way officers approached pursuits from next year in a crackdown on fleeing drivers.
The review followed revelations fleeing driver events had spiked, with an increasing failure to identify offenders.
Coster said a careful balancing act was needed when it came to pursuing fleeing drivers.
"We have to acknowledge, too, that this is not a perfect science and so there are judgments to be made - including things like, 'Do we know who the offender is?' Because if we know who they are then there's a good chance of catching them by other means later," he told AM.
The review into the pursuit policy was initiated in May when Auckland started to become plagued by ram-raid burglaries. Coster said while ram raids were "serious offences", there were many factors to be considered before initiating a pursuit.
"I'm simply not going to draw a bright line - partly because offenders adapt according to what our settings are and we have to keep judgment in there and not be prescriptive."
The fleeing driver policy was changed in 2020 after 63 pursuits-related deaths within a decade. Under that policy, officers only chased a fleeing driver if there was a threat before the pursuit started and if there was a need for the person to be caught immediately.
Coster denied the 2020 change had fuelled an increase in crime but said offenders had "become savvy to the way that police operate".
"That's why we have to be dynamic," he said.
"We're in a difficult position and we will balance it with ongoing reviews."
Coster also said he had no regrets about changing the policy in 2020.
"You just can't predict how settings will influence offender behaviour and strike a perfect balance from the get-go."
Despite not knowing what proportion of ram-raiders were being apprehended, Coster was confident they were being caught even without pursuits.
"I think the really important thing to bare in mind, with ram-raiding, is it is a repetitive offence - so offenders seldom commit just one ram-raid," he said. "Even if we don't catch them for every one that they do, we do catch them and I think we're seeing that in the reduction in ram-raid offending.
"It's very hard to be confident what proportion of all ram-raiders we have actually apprehended but I would say it's relatively high."
