Family violence, theft, property damage, burglaries, break-ins and deception still lead offences committed in Greater Geelong despite an overall drop in crime rates during the past year.
Statistics for the region released yesterday by the independent Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) reflected a positive trend for Victoria Police and local communities, except the Borough of Queenscliffe.
The crime rate in Greater Geelong fell 7.1 per cent in the year to 30 June 2018 and fell by 15.6 per cent in the Surf Coast Shire – the lowest result in 10 years.
Police Minister Lisa Neville welcomed the latest statistics but also said more work needed to be done to continue to drive crime down further.
“We’ve had a sustained change over five quarters of a downward trend in our crime rate and we are heading in the right direction,” Ms Neville said.
“Police are doing an incredible job to disrupt and detect crime in the state,” Ms Neville said.
However she pointed to ongoing challenges in family violence and sexual offending which had increased 8.4 per cent due to new offences such as grooming and revenge porn.
“On one hand we say that crime is coming down, of course there are still people who are suffering who are victims of crime,” she said.
The Bellarine MP said the latest CSA statistics showed a 7 per cent crime rate decrease across the state.
In Geelong, the rate of theft decreased 12.4 per cent, and the rate of burglary/break and enter offences have fallen by 28.1 per cent – the lowest rate in nine years.
However, theft offences (2284 for every 100,000 population) and overall property and deception offences in the Greater Geelong area (10,324 reported incidents) outstripped all other areas of crime reported to police.
In Surf Coast, the rate of theft fell 26.8 per cent, and the rate of burglary/break and enter offences fell a 36.2 per cent. Theft offences (991 for every 100,000 population) and 600 reported incidents dominated other crime in coastal communities.
In Queenscliff, the rate of theft fell 20.4 per cent – the lowest in six years, and the rate of burglary/break and enter offences fell 61.7 per cent – the lowest in five years.
However, the overall crime rate in the Borough of Queenscliff leapt by 89.7 per cent which was mainly attributed to “one person committing a string of deception offences at a local medical centre accounting for 70 per cent of these offences”. “Which is why, the CSA criminal incident rate for Queenscliff has fallen by 31.2 per cent for this same period.”
Family violence continues to be one of the most significant contributors of violence against the person in Geelong and across Victoria, according to the CSA data.
Sexual offences increased by 70 per cent in Geelong – with family violence accounting for 88 per cent of these offences.
“There’s still more work to be done – and we back Victoria Police to give them the resources, technology and the equipment they need to respond to and crack down on crime,” Minister Neville said.
