Crime down

By Kelly Yates
ROBBERIES, assaults and residential burglaries in the City of Casey have increased over the past 12 months, despite the latest Victoria Police crime statistics showing an overall drop in crime.
Casey Crime Investigation Unit’s (CIU) Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Humphries said police were pleased to have achieved an overall reduction in crime in Casey in each of the past four quarters.
Sen Sgt Humphries said police had initiatives in place to address the trend of robberies, assaults and residential burglaries.
“We want to reassure the community that police know about it and are acting on it. We’ve made some arrests recently in relation to street robberies,” he said.
Casey Inspector Andrew Miles said that while the number of robberies reported to police remained high, there had been a decrease in them over the past three months.
“This decrease can be attributed to the arrest of a number of offenders for robbery and other offences,” he said.
The official crime statistics for July 2009 to June 2010 were released by Victoria Police this week.
The figures show that the rate of drug offences and theft from and of motor vehicles had dropped compared to the previous year.
The Casey CIU has established the Casey tasking unit to focus on repeat offenders in the community.
The new unit has been based at Casey CIU in Narre Warren for the past two months.
Sen Sgt Humphries said police were actively targeting repeat offenders who had been identified in the area, as part of a partnership with the Department of Justice.
“The new project has already produced positive results,” he said.
Casey Highway Patrol Sergeant Pat McGavigan said a co-ordinated effort between the Traffic Accident Commission and police helped the reduction in serious injury collisions on Casey roads during the past year.
But he said police “can’t and won’t” back off patrols.
“As quickly as it comes down it can also skyrocket to the top,” Sgt McGavigan said.
“We will be targeting everything and using different ways of catching those who do the wrong thing.”
There have been five fatalities on Casey roads this year, compared to nine deaths at the same time last year.
The overall crime rate in Victoria has fallen 29.9 per cent since 2000/01.
Police solved more crime than ever in the past financial year, with just over 170,000 offenders processed.
This is the highest solve rate since the introduction of computerised recording in 1993.
Police said the Casey community could play a vital role in reducing crime.
Det Sen Sgt Humphries urged anyone with information about a crime to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
“We need the public to help us. We don’t have crystal balls.
“Without their help, we can’t solve as many crimes as we’d like to,” he said.