By Danielle Kutchel
Crime is up in the City of Casey by 6.7 percent, with 17,751 incidents recorded over the past year in contrast to 16, 632 the year before.
That’s according to the latest crime statistics, released by the Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday 17 December.
The new figures reflect the year to 30 September 2020, and take in much of Victoria’s second Covid lockdown.
And it seems theft was the criminal activity of choice for many.
Casey recorded 2591 criminal incidents involving stealing from a motor vehicle. This was in fact a drop in numbers compared to the same period in 2019, when 2748 such offences occurred.
Cranbourne notched up the highest number of criminal incidents for the year to September with 2583, compared to 2251 in 2019.
This was followed by Narre Warren at 2092, Berwick at 2020, Hampton Park at 1432 and Cranbourne North at 1278.
The last three are all increases on 2019.
Crime most commonly took place in the home, with 6113 criminal incidents happening in the house, the stats show.
Family violence incidents have also risen in the City of Casey, by 8.4 percent on the previous year.
Breaches of family violence orders increased from 1990 to 2424.
Total offences recorded in Casey increased as well, up 7.6 percent to 23,856.
41.5 percent of offences recorded were listed as resulting in arrest/summons, while 36.5 percent had an investigation status of unsolved at the end of September.
In good news, offences recorded at shopping complexes were down on 2019 numbers.
According to the Crime Statistics Agency, 1 in 17 offences over the past 12 months were related to Covid-19 Breach of Chief Health Officer Directions.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said there were a range of opportunities for officers that came out of the Covid-19 lockdown.
“Firstly, there were less people out and about which made it a lot easier for our member to spot and check people that were out,” he said.
“With less people on the roads it made it easier for us to identify the criminals. Many of the criminals disregarded the restrictions and still went about doing what they were doing.
“It also assisted with preventing people from being victims. We know that people out in the community can be subjected to incidents, offences and so on.”
