Tate Papworth
Crime in Brimbank rose across all major categories for the year ending March 2020, according to the latest figures from the Crime Statistics Agency.
According to the data, criminal incidents within the municipality rose 5.7 per cent to 15,506 incidents, with “other theft” (2309 incidents) and “steal from a motor vehicle” (2177) the most prevalent crimes.
There was a significant increase in thefts overall, with the number of incidents up by 928 to 6371.
Crimes against the person also rose significantly with robbery rising by 104 to 314 incidents.
St Albans (3083) was by far the worst suburb when it came to the number of incidents, with almost 1000 more than second-placed Sunshine (2205).
On Thursday, Victoria Police North West Commander Tim Hansen said the street gang problem in the west was rising, but Police Minister Lisa Neville downplayed their prevalence.
She said that youths made up nine per cent of all offenders. In comparison, 18-to-20-year-olds accounted for 20 per cent of offenses.
“What we’re seeing is street robberies in parks public transport, and often robberies against each other,” Ms Neville said.
“It’s also about all of us working together – families and communities –it cannot just be a law and order issue, particularly the 10-to-15-year-olds,” she said.
Sexual offence incidents rose by six to 254 while drug use and possession rose by 34 to 414.
Assault incidents also rose by 36 to 1567.
The majority of incidents (53.8 per cent) remain unsolved.
Family violence incidents also surged by 3.3 per cent to 2922 incidents reported to police. Of those, a female was the victim on 2198 occasions.
The most vulnerable were aged between 25-34, with 704 incidents reported.
COVID-19 restrictions, which were expected to spark an increase in family violence incidents, were not in place during this reporting period.
