Data released to the Opposition by the police minister shows that reported retail crime rose by 39 percent from 2018 to 2022.

There is now an average of 292 retail crimes recorded each day, up from 140 per day in 2018.

Police say the data is skewed, partly because new systems make it easier to report the low-level crime.

National Party police spokesperson Mark Mitchell said he completely rejects that.

"The crime has to have been committed ... for it to be reported," Mitchell said.

He told Morning Report he believed crimes that had been unreported remained unreported.

"We cannot escape the fact that retail crime has increased.

"I think you're seeing definitely an increase in violent crime and aggravated robberies, ram raids, and I think that if you talk to retailers, shop owners, they would tell you that one of their big challenges now is their employees not feeling safe and them not feeling safe in their own businesses."

The government rolled out a $6 million Crime Prevention Fund in May 2022, which included funds to install bollards or other protective structures.

In November, then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a $4 million fund to support local council crime prevention programmes to be matched dollar-for-dollar with councils.

A $4000 subsidy for small shops and dairies to install a fog cannon was part of the additional package.

And the Retail Crime Prevention Fund was expanded to include aggravated robberies committed in the past year.

Things like fog cannons while needed were bandaids on the symptoms, Mitchell said.

He said he had heard from some retailers "they've lost complete confidence in this government".

The government was "soft on crime", he said.

"What they want to see is they want to see safer communities. They don't want these youth and juvenile offenders to feel like they can operate with impunity in ... what's been created in a very permissive environment for them.

"They want to see serious consequences... They want the government to show that actually, they take public safety seriously and that they can go to work without the fear of being attacked."

Data released to RNZ under the Official Information Act showed in two years there has been a 465 percent increase in ram raids.