General News
1 July, 2024
Local crime rates spike
Crime rate in the Central Goldfields increased by nearly 25 percent between April 2023 to March 2024 — with data indicating offences are almost at par with pre-pandemic levels. According to the Crime Statistics Agency’s (CSA) latest report...
Crime rate in the Central Goldfields increased by nearly 25 percent between April 2023 to March 2024 — with data indicating offences are almost at par with pre-pandemic levels.
According to the Crime Statistics Agency’s (CSA) latest report, locally there were 1404 criminal offences in the 12 month period, which is the highest amount in the past five years.
Criminal offences in Maryborough reached 1122, a record high since 2015, and is an over 37 percent increase from the same period last year.
Similarly, criminal incidents, meaning a criminal event with multiple offences, alleged offenders and/or victims, increased by over 22 percent from 774 in 2023 to 948 this time around.
While people aged 45 and above were the most common alleged offenders, those offenders aged between 10 and 17 more than doubled in the year ending in March 2024 from 34 to 72,which is the highest rate recorded locally since 2019.
Central Goldfields Local Area Commander Brendon McCrory said local Youth Resource Officers and Youth Specialist Officers are engaging with young offenders to help break the cycle of reoffending.
“While any crime involving a child is concerning, 10-17 year olds only represent 13 percent of alleged offender incidents in Central Goldfields,” he said.
“If people continue to re-offend, we have no hesitation in arresting them and putting them back before the courts.”
Despite decreasing by 13 percent, breaches of family violence orders remains the most common offence in the community with 177 incidents.
The Central Goldfields also recorded a high number of incidents regarding criminal damage (125 offences), sexual offences (106), other theft, which includes incidents like theft without threat (94) and stealing from a motor vehicle (79).
According to Insp McCrory, many local offenders are looking for easy avenues of obtaining “essential items”.
“Overall crime in Central Goldfields has slowly increased to pre-pandemic levels, rather than quickly snapping back,” he said.
“The areas driving increases over the past year are thefts from cars and shop steal offences, particularly essential items including food and groceries.
“What we know is offenders roam up and down streets until they find an unlocked vehicle.
“This is why we are urging the community to lock your vehicle, to prevent opportunistic thefts from occurring.
“Make no mistake — police are out day and night on patrol to deter crime in the community, including patrols in residential areas and shopping centres.”
Mixed results have been reported for neighbouring shires, with Hepburn and Mount Alexander seeing a nearly 12 and 10 percent increase in criminal offences respectively, while offences in the Loddon and Pyrenees shires decreased by eight and six percent.
The Pyrenees Shire’s 374 offences is the lowest amount to date.
Theft related incidents were the most common offence in all neighbouring shires, with Mount Alexander recording 116 instances.