SOARING rates of family violence and drug offences have driven a 4percent rise in overall crime in Maribyrnong in the past 12 months.
Police statistics released on Monday reveal Maribyrnong’s family violence cases are up by 32 per cent and drug offences 58 per cent.
Police have made some inroads, however, cutting residential burglary by 30 per cent and robbery by 20 per cent.
Footscray’s Inspector Tony Long said police had been using the CCTV system in a blitz on the Footscray CBD in recent months, with operations response unit and transit police joining local police.
“These operations will continue for some time and we hope that they will provide a significant boost to community safety in that area.”
Of the drug offences, possession and use jumped from 428 to 516 but the biggest rise was in cultivation, manufacturing and trafficking charges, up 151 per cent from 175 to 439.
The rate of 583 per 100,000 was by the far the highest in the state, dwarfing Yarra (266) and Melbourne (228). Maribyrnong’s robbery rate is also high at 187.3 per 100,000, behind only Melbourne and Yarra.
The 4 per cent overall rise in crime was below the statewide spike of 8.2 per cent, up 29,714 offences to 391,325.
Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said the three main drivers behind the first rise in crime rates in a decade were family violence, drug offences and organised crime.
“It’s a huge concern to police … there were almost 10,000 more family incident reports submitted by police last year.”
Mr Lay said the crime rate was still down 18 per cent on a decade ago. Footscray-based youth worker Les Twentyman said the figures supported a change of direction in dealing with disenfranchised youth.
“When you consider that 40 per cent of all robbery offences are being committed by juveniles, and that close to 23 per cent of all offenders are young males, it is without question that our system is failing our kids.”
Opposition police spokesman James Merlino called for Police Minister Peter Ryan to be sacked over the government’s broken promise to cut crime rates.
