Wangaratta Crime is up..

Source: Wangaratta Chronicle 20.08.08

...but police say it’s because of their good detection work

Written by JACQUIE SCHWIND.

A 12.3 per cent increase in overall crime for the Wangaratta police service area has been largely attributed to good police detection work.

Inspector Martin Dorman of Wangaratta said large leaps in the percentage of drug and deception offences dealt with by police had to be factored in to the Victoria Police 2007/2008 crime statistics released on Monday.

They included a focus on drug-related crime, resulting in a 42.4 per cent increase in the number of drug offences dealt with, and a deception increase of 281.7 per cent.

Insp Dorman said the deception rise included, for example, one person being charged with 101 deceptions.

"Police have seen a series of anomalies and started digging further," Insp Dorman said.

Other crime rises included: handling stolen goods, up 112.9 per cent, following targeted operations; aggravated burglary, up 65.6 per cent from a low base level; and residential burglary up 9.6 per cent.

Going down were vehicle theft by 27.8 per cent, theft from vehicles by 25.3 per cent and assaults by 12.4 per cent.

"The 12.4 per cent drop in assaults is most heartening," Insp Dorman said.

"Property is property, people are people.

"If we are stopping that injury to people or reducing injury to people then we are starting to make inroads.

"Part of the large drop has been from the Crimes Family Violence strategy.

"It’s where police identify families at risk and we make referrals on to support agencies."

Insp Dorman added that the past financial year had also seen quite high clearance rates by police in the areas of assaults, thefts and burglaries.