By Goya Dmytryshchak and Benjamin Millar
Road rage over West Gate Tunnel construction and a crackdown on family violence are behind a jump in assaults in Hobsons Bay last year, police say.
Inspector Peter O’Connor said police were concerned to see an increase in non-family violence serious assaults.
“Some of them are road rage incidents because of the widening of the freeway … I think just because of the traffic congestion,” Inspector O’Connor said.
“It’s a crawl during peak hour and there’s gridlocks and I think that’s where people get very frustrated.
“They pull off the off-ramps and have a disagreement.”
Data released last week by the Crime Statistics Agency showed Hobsons Bay’s overall crime rate was up 2.7 per cent from 6076 to 6238 reported offences from December 2017 to December 2018. The rise was despite a 30 per cent fall in the number of burglaries from 513 to a 10-year low of 361.
Crime against the person rose 2.6 per cent from 957 to 982, including assaults jumping from 486 to 547.
Inspector O’Connor said the Hobsons Bay Summer Policing Team, which operated in and around Altona and Williamstown beaches, accounted for the high detection of public nuisance offences (60 to 133).
“The … team has been proactively targeting people for begging,” Inspector O’Connor said.
“A lot of them [beggars] aren’t destitute, they’re just there to earn some money so they hassle people.”
Deception offences in Hobsons Bay were up from 287 to 340 and drug use and possession climbed from 166 to 250.
Property offences were down 7.6 per cent from 3801 to 3512, including a drop in property damage from 694 to 537.
The statistics revealed a 5.1 per cent rise in reported crimes in Maribyrnong during the same time period was driven by a 5.5 per cent jump in thefts.
Overall crime rose from 8021 offences to 8434, while thefts jumped from 3475 to 3666.
Property damage (up from 611 to 678), arson (21 to 37), robbery (119 to 134) and drug use (311 to 372) offences all rose, but drops were recorded in the number of homicides (eight down to two), assaults (576 to 556) and drug dealing (78 to 56).
While both areas recorded an increase in crime over the 12 months, the overall volume remains below the levels recorded in 2016.
