By Danielle Kutchel
Greater Dandenong experienced its second lowest crime rate in five years in the 12 months to September 2019 – and Victoria Police say that’s not the only good news to come out of the latest crime statistics.
Despite the headline increase in offences in Greater Dandenong last quarter, Victoria Police have stressed that the overall trend is positive.
Greater Dandenong experienced a 3.2 per cent increase in offences over the previous 12 months – but a spokesperson for Victoria Police said that when population growth is taken into account, the increase is even lower with crime increasing by 1.4 per cent per 100,000 people.
Burglaries are down 12.1 per cent, the lowest offence count for the past decade.
Similarly, sexual offences are down 10.1 per cent, the lowest offence count in eight years.
Seemingly negative results can in fact be positive, the spokesperson explained. For example, drug use and possession offences increased to their highest figure in the past decade, but given such crimes are considered “detected crimes” the increase means police are identifying the cases more than previously.
And while the number of family incidents increased slightly by 2 per cent, the spokesperson said this showed that the public had confidence to report these issues to police and trusted they would be treated seriously.
The spokesperson added that Greater Dandenong police work closely with neighbouring police service areas Casey and Cardinia to share resources and intelligence.
“We want to reassure the community that we deploy our resources to where they’re needed most and we want to be clear that policing is not bound by borders,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson cited Operation Tidal as an example, which uses resources from Cardinia, Casey and Greater Dandenong as well as the Frontline Tactical Unit and the Operations Response Unit.
“We’ve achieved some really positive results since the operation commenced with police making more than 900 arrests however we know there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Residents who witness any crime are urged to report the incident to police or Crime Stoppers.
