Cade Lucas
Crime remains stubbornly high in Wyndham, with the latest statistics showing another increase in offending.
The data released late last year by the Crime Statistics Agency showed offences in Wyndham rose by 11.7 per cent for the year to September 2023.
In total, 18,710 offences were recorded for the year, compared to 16,754 to the corresponding point in 2022.
The figures are also an increase on the previous quarter when 18,340 offences were recorded in the year to June 2023.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police said the figures weren’t as bad as they appeared.
“When population growth is taken into account, overall crime in Wyndham is at its second lowest levels in the past decade (outside of COVID impacted years),” the spokesperson said.
“While this is positive, offences such as property damage, retail theft, car theft and theft from motor vehicle offences drove the year-on-year increase.
Our intelligence suggests that a considerable number of car break-ins occur due to unlocked vehicles. Therefore, we strongly urge the community to always secure their properties and vehicles.”
The spokesperson’s comments were reflected in the results, with stealing from a motor vehicle again the most common crime, with 2170 offences recorded compared to 1846 in 2022, while other theft was again second with 2048, up from 1738.
There were 1647 breaches of family violence orders in the year to September 2023, the third most common offence, but down from the 1687 breaches recorded to September 2022.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police said this reduction was negligible and urged victims to continue to report breaches of family violence orders and family violence incidents.
The overall number of family violence incidents grew by 8.2 per cent, with 4499 total incidents recorded to September 2023 compared to 4159 at the same point in 2022.
Once again Werribee was the suburb with the most offences, recording 5297, up from 4773 in September 2022.
Hoppers Crossing was again second with 3006, but Tarneit (2679) leapfrogged Point Cook (2466) into third place.
Houses remained by far the most common location for crime, with 7124 offences occurring in homes compared to 6831 in 2022 and nearly 5000 more than the next most common location, streets, paths and footpaths, on 2436.
Driveways and carports (867), shopping complexes (803) and other retail (532) rounded out the top five, with all higher than the previous year.
