By Danielle Kutchel
Criminal incidents in the City of Greater Dandenong increased in the third quarter of 2019, according to the latest figures released by Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency.
According to the data, which was released in December, there were 14,696 criminal incidents across the local government area in the year ending September 2019.
That’s an increase of 5.5 per cent on the 2018 figures.
Of those, 35.9 per cent resulted in charges being laid.
However, 47.4 percent – or almost 7000 – of the incidents went unsolved.
While the suburbs of Dandenong, Springvale, Keysborough and Dandenong North all experienced an increase in criminal incidents, in Noble Park the number of incidents actually decreased.
Dandenong experienced the most criminal activity of the five suburbs, and increased from 5872 incidents in 2018 to 6087 in 2019.
Springvale, Keysborough, Dandenong North and Noble Park recorded 2038, 1516, 1097 and 2094 incidents respectively.
The top occurring crime was theft from a motor vehicle, with 2142 offences recorded compared to 1921 in the previous year.
The number of family violence incidents also increased in the September quarter, by two percent.
Figures show a rise from 2392 in 2018 to 2441 in 2019.
The majority of those affected by family incidents were female – 1881 compared to 555 males, of the victims whose gender was known – and most of those affected were aged between 25 and 34 years.
