By Alesha Capone
The number of crimes recorded by police in Wyndham has fallen 11.3 per cent across 12 months, although offences such as assaults, family violence and burglaries have all increased within the municipality.
The Victorian Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) has today released offences data for the year ending September 2021.
The total number of crimes reported to Wyndham police in the timeframe was 16,292 offences, compared to 18,376 offences in the previous 12 months.
The crime drop in Wyndham reflected a general reduction in offences across the state, with 496,260 criminal offences recorded across Victoria – a decrease of 10 per cent across the 12 months, which included burglaries and robberies dropping to a 10-year low.
Victoria Police regional operations Deputy Commissioner, Rick Nugent, said that while COVID restrictions have contributed to the decrease, the result “remains a positive outcome for the Victorian community”.
In Wyndham, the number of family violence-related offences increased by 12.6 per cent from 3577 crimes to 4022 crimes.
There were 729 family violence “common assaults” recorded, compared to 649 previously.
Common assaults can include spitting, pushing or slapping another person.
Overall, the number of all assaults and related offences recorded in Wyndham rose from 1597 crimes to 1741 crimes.
Stealing from a motor vehicle increased from 1685 offences to 1779 offences.
Burglaries and break-and-enters rose from 1095 crimes to 1146 crimes.
This included residential aggravated burglaries, which increased from 165 offences to 190 offences.
Homicides rose from below three offences to eight offences (the exact number of homicides is not released by police if it is three or less within a municipality, for privacy reasons).
Weapons and explosives crimes also rose from 374 offences to reach 495 offences.
Incidents of stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour increased from 380 crimes to 489 crimes.
Firearms offences rose from 100 incidents to 184 incidents.
The number of sexual assaults recorded in Wyndham experienced a large reduction, from 718 crimes to 460 crimes.
Obtaining benefits by deception also dropped significantly, from 1077 offences to 710 offences.
The number of motor vehicle thefts fell from 707 to 630.
Drugs offences fell from 862 to 840.
For crimes per suburb, there were 4462 offences recorded in Werribee, 2755 offences recorded in Hoppers Crossing, 2455 offences recorded in Point Cook, 2411 offences recorded in Tarneit and 1649 offences recorded in Wyndham Vale.
