Cool on crime hot spot

By Tania Martin
OLINDA police are denying their town has become a crime hot-spot.
An RACV report says burglary rates have soared – up 66 per cent – in the past 12 month.
The figure makes the otherwise sleepy town the 10th highest for burglaries in the state.
But Sergeant Phil Goodburn of the Yarra Ranges Proactive Tasking Unit said that the report, which was released last week, was misleading and that he had seen no evidence of an increase of burglaries in the town.
According to the RACV the state average is one in 63 homes burgled each year.
But Olinda recorded an alarming statistic of one in every 27 homes which is almost three times the state average.
Sgt Goodburn said that burglaries across the Yarra Ranges had actually decreased by 11 per cent since May. He said residential burglaries had also recorded a 3.13 per cent decrease in April/May compared to the same time last year.
Sgt Goodburn has attributed the misleading data to the fact that police had solved a number of burglary cases.
“This would give us a false reading.
“We have more people being processed for the crimes so we would have a higher reading but the amount of burglaries hasn’t increased,” he said.
Despite what Sgt Goodburn said was a misleading report, he said it was good to release burglary rates to make people more vigilant in reporting suspicious people in the area and for homeowners to be aware of the dangers.
The RACV was unable to comment on the police’s criticisms by the time of going to press.