This article somewhat misses the point about why people are so concerned about crime, in my view. We have recently had a number of high profile, very public, violent crimes in the last few months. Dairy robberies, ram raids, shootings in the middle of the CBD, motorists being beaten by dirt bikers.
It's honestly unhelpful and insensitive to say "statistically speaking" when people are seeing this happen all around them.
The Wellington CBD, for example, is definitely less safe than a few years ago, with people getting aggressive with you for no reason. We also had a violent robbery of a jeweller's shop quite recently as well.
The story you link literally says:
"the varying ways to count and then interpret police data means it’s worth taking all claims about crime rates rising or falling with a pinch of salt"
They go to great pains to point out that the data is not recorded consistently, so drawing any conclusions from it is fraught.