Robberies have doubled and assaults risen sharply in Wyndham, while the number of thefts from houses and cars declined, the latest police figures reveal.
Statistics released by Victoria Police show that overall crime in Wyndham rose by 2.8 per cent over the 12 months to March this year, while statewide crime rose by 7.1 per cent.
The largest increase in Wyndham was in robberies, which rose by 50 per cent with 102 offences recorded.
Assaults, excluding family violence, increased by 48 per cent, with 842 cases, and overall assaults jumped by 30.8 per cent to 1466.
In contrast, residential burglaries fell by 34.2 per cent to 999 and drug offences fell by 20.7 per cent to 456.
Wyndham police’s Inspector Damien Christensen said his officers were working hard to lower the amount of crime against the person.
“Crime goes up and down at different times of the year and we’re reviewing some of our procedures,” Inspector Christensen said.
“Assaults have increased and information based on intelligence has identified many assaults that have occurred between people known, but not related, to each other and an increase in assaults on police and Protective Services Officers (PSOs) in the execution of their duty.
“We also record and manage all reported assaults occurring within Port Phillip Prison.
A lot of the robberies are low-level things like someone having their phone pinched, but we’ve also seen an increase in the figures because there’s been an increase in our levels of apprehension.”
But Mr Christensen said the same logic could not be applied to explain why there had been a drop in residential burglaries.
“There is definitely less of them happening. We never, ever take our eye off the ball there.”
