The latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) shows crime in Geelong is rising back toward pre-pandemic levels, if not as quickly as the rest of the state.
The data, released on Thursday shows the total number of offences recorded in Greater Geelong has risen by 6.2 per cent – from 20,148 the previous year to 21,401, compared to a state-wide increase of 7.9 per cent.
Property and deception offences such as theft, property damage, break-ins and obtaining benefit by deception were the most numerous, comprising over half of the total recorded offences (11,547), increasing at a rate of 13.4 per cent from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
Theft from motor vehicles remains the most frequent form of property and deception offences, but has fallen slightly over the past year.
However, Geelong’s fastest growing category of offences over the past year has been justice procedure offences, which grew at a rate of 19.4 per cent.
Family violence order breaches are the largest sub-category of offences in the region, accounting for nearly 14 per cent of all offences in Greater Geelong.
Breaches of family violence orders in the region rose from 2576 to 2964 (13.1 per cent), compared to a rise of 5 per cent in Victoria overall.
Drug-related offences in Geelong also grew significantly in the past 12 months, increasing by 18.8 per cent.
Drug dealing and trafficking offences dropped 15 per cent, while drug use and possession offences rose 23.1 per cent.
CSA chief statistician Fiona Dowsley said offences overall still remained below crime rates before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Increases in acquisitive offence types, particularly theft offences, are a major contributor to the upward trends observed in recorded crime measures in the last 12 months,” Ms Dowsley said
“Despite an increase in theft offence types across all recorded crime measures these numbers remain below pre-pandemic peaks recorded in 2020.”
