Car theft blitz leads to spike in robberies of elderly, drunks hoods go for ‘soft targets’

Alex de Vos
A police operation to tackle theft from cars has led to a spike in other crimes on “soft targets”, according to Geelong’s top cop.
Police Inspector Phil Swindells said new figures for March, 2010, showed a 47.3 per cent increase in robbery, while theft from cars fell 16.7 per cent from last year’s high of 30.2 per cent.
Insp Swindells blamed the jump in robberies on “greater enforcement around other crimes”.
“There has been more enforcement to target theft from motor cars, so these offences aren’t as alluring,” Insp Swindells said.
“People are thinking of new ways to commit crimes and are targeting other crime categories and soft targets.”
Insp Swindells listed people under the influence of alcohol and the elderly as “soft targets”.
“They’re people who are spied upon and deemed as vulnerable.”
Insp Swindells said the spike in robbery was a “concern”.
“We’re trying to do something about that in terms of enforcement,” he said.
Police figures for the March quarter also showed an eight per cent drop in crimes against a person including homicide, rape, robbery and abduction.
Assaults slumped 12.5 per cent, while property crime including arson, burglary and theft of cars fell 6.2 per cent, the statistics revealed.
Residential burglaries dropped 11.2 per cent, while drug offences rose 19.6 per cent, up from last year’s increase of 6.7 per cent.
Overall, crime dropped 4.5 per cent after a three per cent fall last year.
Insp Swindells said the statistics revealed improvements in some crime rates.
“They are continuing to reduce in some cases quite significantly while offences of robbery remain of high concern on our list of priorities for reduction,” he said.
Insp Swindells also praised the spike in arrests for drug offences.
“It’s a proactive statistic – it means we’re catching more people,” he said.
“We’ve run a number of operations which have been very successful.”