Official police data shows foot patrols in Auckland are down, not up.

Police minister Mark Mitchell, on Wednesday's Morning Report, lauded a 60 percent increase in foot patrols in the Auckland CBD in the six months since the government was elected to power.

But the raw figures give more context to his claims.

Police provided RNZ with the figures the minister was basing his claims on, and they show a 58 percent increase in foot patrols in March in the Auckland CBD, compared with October last year.

The figures show foot patrols in three parts of the CBD - Auckland Harbourside, Auckland Central West, and Auckland Central East.

Auckland Central West's numbers more than doubled, from 300 patrols in October to 684 patrols in March, but in Auckland Central East the number of patrols actually dropped, from 192 to 178.

The March figures given to the minister were about a third higher than any other month, and appear to be an outlier.

According to official police data published online, across the entire Auckland City police district - which covers the CBD and suburbs including Onehunga, Mount Wellington, Balmoral, Glenn Innes, Avondale, Ponsonby and Newmarket - foot patrols dropped by 6 percent between October and April, from just over 1213 patrols in October to 1135 in April.

Since election day, police foot patrols were lower in four of the next six months.

Mitchell first claimed a 58 percent increase in foot patrols at a public meeting on Tuesday night, in which residents told him they did not feel safe.

When he told the crowd there had been a 58 percent increase in foot patrols, one resident stood up and claimed that was "bollocks".

"I can count on one hand the number of police I've seen on the beat in the last three years in the central city," the man said, met with a round of applause from the crowd.

"It's not safe and I want to see cops rotating up and down the streets all day."

Across the wider Auckland region, the Counties Manukau and Waitemata police districts had a 38 percent increase in patrols.

They also increased nationwide.

Wellington and Northland went the other way, with foot patrols dropping by more than a third in both regions.