DRUG and robbery offences are more than three times as frequent in Maribyrnong as the rest of the state, new police data reveals.
Quarterly (year on year) police statistics, released on Friday, show a 6.7 per cent overall rise in crime in the area from 8177 to 8722.
The spike was fuelled by a large jump in the number of drug (927), assault (609), vehicle theft (529) and theft-from-vehicle (1423) offences in the past 12 months.
Efforts to curb robbery and burglary have begun to show results with an 11 per cent drop in robbery (152) and 26 per cent fall in residential burglary (632). Yet the robbery rate remains 3.4 times the statewide average and drug offences are 3.5 times greater.
Maribyrnong’s Acting Inspector Damien Jones said police had been running a number of high-visibility and covert operations targeting burglary, robbery and theft from and of cars.
High crime rates in the Footscray CBD led to creation of the ‘Footscray public assistance team’, with a sergeant and two officers patrolling the CBD to tackle crime, drunkenness and antisocial behaviour. “The unit has produced excellent results in the first month,” Acting Inspector Jones said.
A similar team may be tasked to Highpoint shopping centre in future.
Acting Inspector Jones said the roll-out of protective services officers at Footscray railway station had led to “a substantial reduction” in police call-outs to the station.
He attributed a “tremendous” number of the 1423 theft-from-car offences to an alleged culprit who was recently arrested over break-ins in the Yarraville, Kingsville and Maidstone areas, targeting GPS units and other electronic equipment.
“He told investigators it was easy because people left in full view the things he wanted. The message to all is to remove small electronic items, cash and bags from cars when you park them.”
The number of offences recorded across Victoria was up 27,516 (7.5 per cent) to 395,406 offences. Assaults are up 14.2 per cent, driven by a 37 per cent jump in family violence.
Deputy Commissioner Lucinda Nolan said drug use was also up across the state, causing other crimes to also rise. Williamstown MP Wade Noonan MP said Premier Ted Baillieu had promised to make our communities safer, “but he has failed the people of Maribyrnong”.
