By YASEMIN TALAT
THERE has been a major drop in residential burglary across Brimbank over the last financial year.
Crime statistics released by Victoria Police last week for the 2012-’13 financial year showed an 18.8 per cent drop from 1839 residential burglary cases to 1498 cases.
Inspector Chris Gilbert said it was an encouraging result.
“The Burglary Team at the Brimbank CIU has done a fantastic job in identifying and targeting recidivist burglars,” Insp Gilbert said.
Another big drop was the 10 per cent decrease in theft from motor vehicles.
“The Vehicle Crime Task Force has followed the Burglary Team’s lead in working to strategically target persons known to commit these crimes,” Insp Gilbert said.
On the flip side theft of motor vehicle rose 4 per cent and other burglaries by 7 per cent.
Statistics show robbery was also up by almost 20 per cent.
But Inspector Gilbert said the results were still on the low end of the scale.
“Our long term trends around robbery, and crimes against the person generally, still look good and are far removed from high levels we faced in 2010-’11,” Insp Gilbert said.
“We have realigned a task force to focus on robberies. They will support our Embona Task Force and I am confident we will turn this around very quickly,” he said.
Other crimes also jumped between 2011-’12 compared to 2012-’13 with overall crime across Brimbank rising by almost 9 per cent.
Drug offences were up by a staggering 41 per cent making it the highest increase for Brimbank this financial year.
“Drugs, particularly powders, are a driver of crime,” Insp Gilbert said.
“An almost 40 per cent increase in drug offences detected demonstrates the continuing focus on drugs in our community.”
Crime against a person and assault also showed a jump over the comparative period.
An additional 1700 police officers added to the Brimbank team over the coming year , as well as PSOs, will help reduce crime Insp Gilbert said.
“PSOs now patrol four stations in Brimbank with Albion the latest to come online,” Insp Gilbert said.
“Brimbank will also receive additional police as part of the government’s commitment to bringing in an extra 1700 police,” he said.
“The allocation process for these new police will continue through until mid-2015 and the extra numbers we will get will help us achieve the sustained reductions we’ve been working on.”
Road policing statistics also showed a slight increase in collisions causing injury, motorists being urged to take control of reducing these statistics.
“It’s very simple for the community to prevent any collision or death,” Insp Gilbert said.
“Don’t take drugs or drink then drive, don’t speed, don’t use a mobile when driving and do show courtesy to other road users,” he said.
“There’s not a single road fatality I’ve attended where it wasn’t avoidable,” he said.
“You’ll know someone who flouts our road laws. I urge you to challenge them and their behaviours to help us drive a better road safety culture, particularly in our younger drivers.”
