VIOLENCE, including assaults, domestic violence and harassment, is the police’s ‘‘biggest challenge’’, says Melton’s Inspector Steve Mutton.
New crime figures released last week reveal crimes against the person increased 14.1 per cent in the year to April.
A total of 1442 of these offences, including 1203 assaults, were recorded in the Melton police service area.
Inspector Mutton said police launched a unit dedicated to solving this problem late last year, targeting assaults occurring in private and public areas. “We’ve found a lot of recent crimes committed against people don’t have a trend. They’re occurring in public places, but not necessarily licenced premises.”
Melton’s overall crime rate increased 7.6 per cent, with drug offences up 15 per cent.
Inspector Mutton said: “While it’s gone up, we see this as a sign that our special drug-focused unit, which is executing more search warrants and car checks in known drug hotspots, is working.”
In January, Melton detectives arrested a Kurunjang man, 27, for drug and weapons offences. Weeks later, Moorabool police arrested three Bacchus Marsh men after a pre-dawn raid in which they discovered a backyard drug labatory.
Street crimes, such as weapons offences, antisocial public behaviour and drunkenness, jumped from 683 to 1006 offences (by 47.3 per cent), which police said could be linked to introduction of protective service officers and police patrolling high-risk locations like Woodgrove shopping cenre and Melton railway station.
Residential burglaries were down 9.3 per cent (from 942 to 855 cases), which Inspector Mutton attributed to the success of a specialised unit. “But we are still experiencing a rise in other burglaries on commercial premises, garages, and sheds and houses under construction.”
Theft from motor vehicles offences fell 12.7 per cent (from 1131 to 987).
Inspector Mutton said many property-related crimes were committed by repeat offenders. “We want to focus on those recidivist criminals,’’ he said. ‘‘The [adage] ‘80 per cent of crime is committed by the same 20 per cent of the population’ — that’s the notion we’re running with.”
