By CASEY NEILL
CRACKDOWNS on family violence and bail breaches have caused crime figures to skyrocket in Greater Dandenong.
The Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday 1 October released crime statistics for Victoria for the year ending 30 June.
In Greater Dandenong, order breaches jumped 67 per cent to 2752 offences, up from 1644 the previous 12 months.
Greater Dandenong police Inspector Bruce Kitchen said the offenders involved breached intervention orders issued to protect family violence victims and bail orders.
“The bail orders particularly relate to youth offenders,” he said.
“We’re concentrating a lot more on those breaches. That’s a state-wide that action.”
Insp Kitchen said Dandenong Magistrates’ Court’s location within his jurisdiction pushed up the numbers, which also cover escaping custody and resisting arrest.
“There’s a lot around PSOs at the railway station,” he said.
Total crime in Greater Dandenong increased 6.6 per cent on the previous 12 months, from 13,642 offences to 14,538.
The state-wide average increase was 4.6 per cent.
After order breaches, the Police Service Area’s (PSA) top five offences included theft (4790 offences), burglary (1587), assault (1579) and property damage (1274).
Insp Kitchen said thefts of and from motor vehicles remained “a real issue for us”.
“A lot of it is about people leaving valuables in their cars, number plates being taken off vehicles and vehicles being left unlocked,” he said.
“We’ve sent the message out – I’ve lost count how many times – but a lot of people aren’t listening.”
He said Greater Dandenong averaged 28 thefts from cars each week and about 13 thefts of cars.
“My main concern is assaults. They’re tracking at 20 a week, excluding family violence,” he said.
“It’s more important to me to be more concerned about issues that affect the individuals.
“Most parties are known to each other and the assaults are committed around government housing, boarding houses, service provider houses.
“Assaulting police and PSOs are also in that category.”
Insp Kitchen said there were about 15 residential burglaries in Greater Dandenong each week.
The statistics showed total drug offences had increased from 885 to 1007, with drug trafficking and dealing up from 185 to 214 and cultivating or manufacturing drugs down from 79 to 54.
The number of drug use and possession offences recorded rose from 848 to 950.
Disorderly and offensive conduct offences dropped from 816 to 698 but public nuisance doubled from 56 to 102.
Insp Kitchen put the jump down to “youths causing trouble”.
