Crime rate decreases across Victoria

THE Crime Statistics Agency has released its Victorian recorded crime statistics for the 12 months to the end of March, showing a 9.5 per cent decrease in the recorded offence rate across the state.

The recorded criminal incident rate was 5,876.3 per 100,000 population, down 10.9 per cent from the previous year.

There were 380,150 criminal incidents recorded by Victoria Police in the year to March 2018, down by 8.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.

This decrease is attributed to incidents with a property and deception principal offence (including burglary, theft and deception), which decreased 12.3 per cent and comprised about 60 per cent of all recorded criminal incidents in Victoria in the last 12 months.

In the year to March 2018, the crime rate in Greater Geelong is down by 1.2 per cent, Queenscliffe is down by 16.1 per cent and Surf Coast is down by 13 per cent.

Police Minister and Bellarine MP Lisa Neville said the biggest police recruitment drive in Victoria’s history, funded by the Labor state government, was starting to have an impact on the ground.

“The crime statistics released today highlight the relentless work police are doing – day in, day out – to keep people in our community safe,” Ms Neville said.

“While these are promising figures there is always more to be done to drive down crime further. That’s why we’re making record investments to give police the resources, powers and equipment they need to keep us safe.”

While offences have declined across most offence types in the last 12 months, sexual assault offences continued to increase.

Crime Statistics Agency Chief Statistician Catherine Andersson said the introduction of a number of new sexual offence codes in the past three years has contributed to this increase.

In response, the state Opposition said total crime since Labor had been in power, including assaults and other violent offences, was up by 9.5 per cent.