By Molly Magennis
The number of criminal incidents recorded in Maribyrnong have decreased over the past year, recent data from the Crime Statistics Agency has revealed.
To the year ending in December 2021, the total number of incidents in the municipality have reduced by 4.5 per cent, down by 329.
Senior Sergeant Amanda Bowden from the Footscray Police Station said this decrease wasn’t surprising considering the amount of work local police had put in over the last year, particularly in regards to repeat offenders.
“We’ve got our criminal investigation unit and also our vehicle crime response team who worked really hard on the [repeat offenders] and have been doing some great work in detecting, arresting and processing those people. So that’s, that’s been having a really positive impact on our crime as well,” she said.
“Considering we’re coming out of COVID and into an environment where people are moving around it really shows me that we’re doing some good work and we’re and we’re in the right direction.”
Theft from a motor vehicle was the number one offence and increased by 13 percent from the previous year. According to the data, this offence has remained the number one issue in the area since 2012.
Sergeant Bowden said this can be attributed to the fact that there’s been an increase in movement since COVID restrictions have eased.
“There’s obviously an element of there’s more cars out unsupervised and so we’re seeing that statewide as a trend.”
Of top five suburbs with the most criminal offences, West Footscray was the only one which saw a jump with 110 additional offences recorded.
Local police are aware of this spike in the area, Sergeant Bowden said.
“There’s been a bit of a spike in certain types of particularly property crime, and it’s something that [we’re] actively tasked to as well…..so yes, we’re aware of it.”
Sergeant Bowden said the main message police want to get out to the public is to call police as soon as they witness something suspicious.
“We need everybody’s eyes and ears.”
Hobsons Bay had a slight increase in recorded offences, going up by 1.7 per cent.
Williamstown was the number one suburb with the most criminal offences (899).
