Brimbank council will look at ways to improve community safety following rising concerns of youth knife violence in the municipality.
Councillor Thomas O’Reilly called for a safety report at the council meeting on September 19, following a number of incidents that have occurred in Brimbank over the past few months related to youth crime.
At the most recent council meeting, council acknowledged that knife crime is an issue of concern to many in Brimbank, particularly involving young people.
Some of the current measures being employed to address this issue include Victoria Police working with Brimbank retailers around the display and packaging of knives, to limit access. This includes, advocating for packaging that cannot be opened quickly and easily and providing information to retailers around securing knives on display by keeping them under lock, reducing numbers of knives on display, and implementing CCTV coverage of locations where knives are displayed.
There have been several recent incidents of knife violence in Brimbank with two young people being fatally stabbed in separate incidents during 2023.
In May of this year, a 16-year-old Melton South teenager died after being stabbed in Sunshine.
Less than six weeks later, a 14-year-old Braybrook teenager was killed in June, after being hit by a car and knifed by two attackers in St Albans.
