By Jonty Ralphsmith
The City of Casey recorded the third highest number of criminal offences in 2021 of any local government area.
The Criminal Statistics Agency released their 2021 data on Thursday 17 March, revealing that the City of Casey had 19,680 offences recorded, behind only Greater Geelong (20,018) and Melbourne (33,597).
Casey also recorded the most family incidents with 5,174 – 231 fewer than in 2020.
In good news, the number of criminal incidents in the City of Casey is down 17.2 per cent from 2020 to 2021.
The most offences occurred in Cranbourne with 1863 offences followed by Berwick (1629), Narre Warren (1533), Hampton Park (1022) and Cranbourne North (999).
Houses were the top location for offences with 5833 offences occurring in the household.
Stealing from a motor vehicle was the most common offence, followed by breach family violence order, criminal damage, other theft and common assault.
In Berwick, total offences were down 2475 to 2157 with a decrease in all offence divisions – crimes against the person, property and deception offences, public order and security offences, justice procedures – except drug offences.
Hampton Park (1868 in 2020 compared to 1453 in 2021), Narre Warren (2627 in 2020, 2123 in 2021), Narre Warren North (352 in 2020, 323 in 2021) and Narre Warren South also recorded a decrease in the annual number of crimes.
In nearby Cardinia Shire Council, there was a 17.9 per cent decrease in offences with the most offences occurring in Pakenham (2860) and Officer (665).
The decrease across Casey and Cardinia was consistent with the entire state: 2021 represents the lowest number of criminal offences committed in a calendar year in Victoria since 2014.
There were 477, 999 criminal offences recorded in Victoria for the 2021 calendar year – a decrease of 12.8 per cent from 2020.
Burglaries/break and enters were at their lowest level for a calendar year since 1993, robberies were at their lowest levels since 2014 and there was a year-on-year decline in family violence for the first time since the pandemic began.
Deputy Commissioner of Regional Operations, Rick Nugent, said it was positive to see the reduction in offences.
“While each victim of crime is one person too many, we are pleased that last year we had the lowest number of victims in Victoria since 2010, with almost 14,500 fewer victims of crime than the year prior,” Mr Nugent said.
“While it is likely that overall crime will increase as the community returns to normality, the early signs are relatively positive.
“To date, we have not seen a rapid return across all crime categories, with police intelligence indicating overall offending still remains below pre-pandemic levels.
“It has also been encouraging that the number of first-time offenders across all crime categories has remained consistent with the previous two years. We are particularly pleased that first time youth offenders decreased 7.6% in the last year, contributing to a reduction of 35.8% over ten years.
“Every member of Victoria Police is working tirelessly to keep the crime rate as low as possible – whether it’s the police officers deployed to your local shopping strip to stop crime from occurring, the police vehicle patrolling your neighbourhood to keep car thieves at bay, or the detectives investigating, arresting and prosecuting offenders, we are doing everything possible to keep you safe.”
The City of Casey’s population at the 2016 census was 299,301.
