By Alesha Capone
WYNDHAM’s top cop has said police do not have the ability to patrol the area’s new estates, where residential burglary rates have skyrocketed across the latest financial year.
Wyndham Inspector Bill Weatherly said Wyndham was the “fastest growing area for burglaries” within Victoria.
“We’re up 23 per cent this financial year, we’re averaging 100 burglaries a month,” he said.
“I have nightmares going home some nights about how many burglaries we have in Wyndham.
“It’s the new areas with houses under construction we don’t patrol.
“We don’t patrol those areas because we just don’t have the capacity to patrol these new estates.”
Insp Weatherly made the comments at a meeting Wyndham City Council held with police and housing developers Metricon, Dennis Family Homes, Mega Homes and Henley, to discuss the alarming rise in burglaries which has accompanied the municipality’s rapid population growth.
“This damages our city’s image as a safe and thriving place to live,” Wyndham Mayor Heather Marcus said.
Insp Weatherly vowed to crack down on residential burglary crimes.
Sergeant Pat Spezza said Victoria Police recorded a house under construction, which was broken into, as a residential burglary.
In the latest crime statistics for the Wyndham Police Service area, which compared October 2009-September 2010 with the previous period, residential burglaries rose 33 per cent.
However, other types of burglaries fell by 14 per cent, while property damage went down by seven per cent.
Theft from motor vehicles rose 22 per cent, while assaults, excluding family violence, went up 25 per cent.
