The Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, has insisted the overall police system is working properly despite data revealing nearly 60 per cent of police callouts last year were abandoned.

Of 962,521 emergency calls, 572,037 were abandoned. In 2023, reports were up 50 per cent from 2019 and, of cases reported, 179,957 were closed without any investigation at all.

Police Association president Chris Cahill told The Mike Hosking Breakfast that online reporting had driven up numbers. The Auror retail crime reporting app enables small, low-level crime to be reported to police.

Less than half of reports made on the app are actual offences.

"To a retailer, the constant little thefts have a big impact on their business but the reality of being able to investigate it is pretty small," said Cahill.

"I think it's a matter of drilling down and getting the best data out of that reporting, then acting on the best part of it. We have the best results from repetitive shoplifters [being] dealt with, some of them are stealing thousands of dollars. So those things being identified can make it worthwhile. But it can skew the figures a little bit."

Mitchell told Newstalk ZB the numbers didn't surprise him and said they reflected a growing demand for emergency service response and provided examples to put the call-out figures into context.

He said in one instance, Oranga Tamariki requested police to complete a family harm check on a couple they hadn't heard from in a while. A dog handler carried out the check and found children without food.

The dog handler purchased a food package and took it to the children.

In another example Mitchell provided, a two-man unit was sent to a young woman who had threatened to harm herself. She was collected and taken to hospital, where police subsequently spent four hours of their shift.

"That's not a police job. They're incredible and empathetic, they provide support when they need to but it's not regarded as police work," said Mitchell.

"So lots of work they do, although they say it's not being reported or no action is being taken in a police role - they've had a massive increase in jobs they need to attend."

Mitchell was adamant that if somebody phoned 111 and requested police attendance, their call would be immediately picked up and action would be taken.

He said emergency operators have a target of 10 seconds to respond to 111 calls - a target they're hitting 90 per cent of the time, which Mitchell said he was satisfied with.

"I'm not happy that police are pulled in a hundred different directions and are doing things they shouldn't be doing because I want them to be able to respond to members of the public when they put their hand up and want help," the Police Minister said.

"But that's going to take time to get sorted out ... they're our only 24/7 agency and they're doing an outstanding job but it does pull them away from other work I'd like to see them doing."

Cahill said he had broken the call-out numbers down in detail and found that close to 20 per cent of the requests for police support were closed early.

He explained these would be cases where police would have little information to be able to act on, or the incident was simply too minor for officers to act on.

However, Cahill also identified potential causes for concern within the data.

"I mean, there's a figure here where matters filed by police discretion has doubled from 15 per cent to 31 per cent," he said.

"Now that worries me because is that because we're just too busy, and we can't do anything on the matter? And if you're assaulted in a supermarket, chances are there's CCTV footage of it somewhere. So those sorts of things should be looked at."