Police made more than 4600 arrests in Wyndham across a 12-month period, with the majority of offenders being born in Australia, New Zealand or Sudan.
Data from the state’s Crime Statistics Agency shows that between October, 2016, and September last year police made a total of 4666 arrests in Wyndham, compared to 4611 arrests in the previous 12 months.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said although there were 4666 arrests, that did not mean there were 4666 offenders – one person arrested multiple times would be counted multiple times.
“It’s also unclear as to whether or not these offenders live and reside in Wyndham or are from other areas,” the spokeswoman said.
Out of all the arrests in Wyndham during the period, police recorded the offender’s country of birth as Australia more than half of the time (2897 arrests, compared to 3135 in the previous 12 months).
For another 395 arrests, the offender’s birthplace was recorded as New Zealand (compared to 424 in the previous 12 months). Police recorded Sudan as the birthplace for 199 arrestees (compared to 139 in the previous 12 months).
According to last year’s Australian census, there are 7714 people who were born in New Zealand living in Wyndham and 1184 people who were born in Sudan.
The Victoria Police spokeswoman said while the number of youth offenders born in African countries remains stable in Wyndham, Victoria Police has acknowledged that the community faces an issue with young people from African backgrounds being “overly represented” in violent youth crime.
“We know there’s a small group of offenders, around 200 to 300, who have been responsible for serious and violent offending … police have been working hard to tackle the issue,” she said.
“This includes identifying those responsible for these incidents, making arrests and putting them before the courts.”
South Sudan became a country in 2011 but police and census data provided to Star Weekly did not distinguish between Sudan and South Sudan.
