By XAVIER SMERDON
ASSAULTS and family violence are some of the only crimes on the rise in Wyndham, according to the latest Victoria Police statistics.
Data released by police on Wednesday showed that while there had been a reduction of almost every crime, some by almost 33 per cent, robbery and assaults including and excluding family violence had seen a dramatic rise in Wyndham.
Total crime fell by 5.5 per cent from 1 October 2012 to 30 September this year with 12,080 incidents reported.
Residential burglaries also fell by 32.9 per cent and thefts from motor vehicles were down by 20.5 per cent.
But assaults excluding family violence rose by more than 50 per cent and assaults including family violence rose by 36.6 per cent.
As the figures were released just one day after White Ribbon Day, which aims to raise awareness of the seriousness of violence against women, they served as a timely reminder as to just how widespread the issue is.
Inspector Damien Christensen said when the data was assessed in terms of per every 100,000 people, the rise in assaults was even more severe.
“I have been provided with intelligence that has helped to identify the cause for an increase in assaults of 46.6 per cent,” Insp Christensen said.
“The information provided has identified that many of the reported assaults have occurred between people known but not related to each other and an increase in road rage incidents.
“We also record and manage all reported assaults occurring within Port Phillip Prison.”
Inspector Christensen said he was pleased that his officers had managed to drive down crimes like residential burglary and thefts from vehicles, which have been long standing issues in Wyndham.
He said that they would try to reduce the amount of assaults plaguing the municipality.
“It is extremely pleasing to record a 12.2 per cent reduction in crime per 100,000 population. The dedicated work of the local police has seen a 37.7 per cent reduction in residential burglary and significant reductions in theft from and theft of motor vehicles,” he said.
“We will continue to target these crime areas, while also attempting to impact the categories of assaults including family violence and non-family violence assaults and robberies which have all increased in the previous 12 months.”
