By Bonny Burrows
Cardinia’s top cop has welcomed a 16.9 per cent reduction in local crime.
The Crime Statistics Agency released numbers for the 12 months ending 30 September on Thursday 14 December.
State-wide the number of overall incidents recorded dropped 4.8 per cent and locally they decreased by 16.9 per cent.
Victoria Police’s Cardinia Police Service Area Local Area Commander Inspector Shane Smith said the local drop in crime rate was due to “significant” decreases in high-volume crimes such as burglaries, thefts and robberies.
He said that while he was pleasing to see a drop in these crime categories, local police would continue to work hard to prevent, deter, investigate and arrest offenders in order to keep people and their property safe.
“We have and will continue to maintain a strong focus on crime categories that significantly impact community safety such as assault and related offences, which were down 10 per cent, burglaries and break and enter, which were down 16.9 per cent, robberies, down 30.3 per cent, and thefts, down 18.6 per cent,” Inspector Smith said.
While some categories of crime have increased, the Inspector said it was actually a positive outcome for the community.
“(This is) primarily due to police activity of arresting and charging offenders for these types of offences (which included) cultivate or manufacture drugs, up 31.3 per cent, and weapons and explosives offences up, 23.9 per cent,” Inspector Smith said.
The top cop also shared some words of advice to local residents.
“I would like to thank the public for their support and remind everyone that prevention is the key,” he said.
“Lock your vehicle when unattended and don’t leave valuable items visible to passers-by. This type of theft is mostly opportunistic so can be prevented by simple security measures.”
He also asked residents to continue reporting local crime.
“If you see something suspicious, say something by ringing triple zero if urgent, or by reporting to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
“Reports can be made anonymously,” Inspector Smith said.
