Charges lead to increase crime figures

By CASEY NEILL
FAMILY violence is pushing up crime rates in the Yarra Ranges and Cardinia.
The latest Victoria Police crime statistics compared the 12 months to March this year with the previous 12 months and revealed a 14 per cent jump in crime in Cardinia and a 2.2 per cent rise in the Yarra Ranges Police Service Area (PSA).
Drug offences in Cardinia jumped sharply, by 68.7 per cent, and were up 43.5 per cent, from 214 cases to 307, in the Yarra Ranges.
But this was in line with a state-wide 5.6 per cent increase in overall crime that Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said was from family violence and drug offences.
“Victims are increasingly confident and willing to report these matters and that is to be welcomed,” he said.
“Increased efforts in detecting, investigating, and charging those people who use or sell drugs has also led to an increase in total crime.
“We don’t yet know if societal factors – such as financial pressures generated by the changing economic factors – are also impacting on our total crime.”
In the Yarra Ranges there was an 8.9 per cent increase in assaults, but assaults excluding family violence were down 7.3 per cent.
The Mail last month reported that the region’s police were targeting the issue with help from Eastern Domestic Violence Service in a bid to reduce repeat-offending.
Cardinia Inspector Chris Major said his officers launched an initiative dedicated to reducing repeat offences in April.
Assault was up by 22.6 per cent in the PSA compared to the previous 12 months, but assault excluding family violence increasing just 1.7 per cent.
In the Yarra Ranges, robberies dropped 21.3 per cent, residential burglary was down half a per cent, and there was a 30 per cent drop in non-residential burglaries, bucking a state-wide increase in these crimes.
Yarra Ranges Inspector Paul Rosenblum said: “In the next six months property crime will remain one of our main priorities.”
Property damage rose 12.6 per cent. Insp Rosenblum said the Yarra Ranges Proactive Policing Unit (PPU) would be brought into operation to address a wide variety of policing issues.
“Initially, however, it will specifically target property crimes such as criminal damage and graffiti related offences,” he said.
In the five months from 1 January this year there have been seven deaths in Cardinia, up from three during the same period last year.
“Alcohol, drugs, speed, fatigue and inattention have all been contributing factors in these tragic events,” Insp Major said.
“All fatal collisions and trauma on our roads are preventable and it is up to everybody on our roads to be very conscious of this fact.”
Insp Major urged people to report dangerous driver behaviour to triple zero or their local police station.