VIC: Crime rate in Victoria rises

AAP General News (Australia)
08-13-1999
VIC: Crime rate in Victoria rises

By Sarah Timms

MELBOURNE, Aug 13 AAP - Victoria's crime rate has risen, but more crimes are being solved
and more arrests made.

Victoria Police annual crime figures, released today, showed total recorded offences
climbed 3.6 per cent to 435,953 last financial year.

Over the same period, police processed 21,161 more alleged offenders than in the previous
year and cleared 40.2 per cent of total crime.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Neil Comrie said the overall crime figures were less
than the 1990/91 peak of 440,323. This showed the crime rate had changed little for almost a
decade.

"These statistics, I would argue, prove that Victoria's policing methods and getting the
right balance of police on the street, is working," Mr Comrie told reporters.

But armed robberies remained a major concern, he said.

In the past 18 months, specialist detectives on the Embona Taskforce into armed robberies
had charged more than 700 people with 1,000 offences, Mr Comrie said.

"We know for a fact the vast majority of these armed robberies, ... are a different type of
armed robbery than those we used to experience on financial institutions. They are now
occurring in the street and are invariably committed by drug offenders to support their
addiction.

"It will only be resolved when we have a broad-based national strategy to reduce both the
availability and the impact of drugs," he said.

Programs were in place to combat drug-related crimes, including Crime Stoppers and other
community-based initiatives, he said.

Recorded crime against the person rose by 2.8 per cent, crime against property rose by 3.6
per cent and drug offences were up by 3.8 per cent, figures showed.

The greatest increase in crimes against the person were the 185 homicides recorded - up
38.1 per cent on the previous financial year.

But police said this was mainly due to an increase in culpable driving (from 34 to 64) and
of attempted murder offences (from 41 to 56), both listed in the homicide category.

Substantive murders increased from 49 to 54.

Although police were concerned about any slight increase in overall crime figures, crime
was not out of control and Victoria remained Australia's safest state, Mr Comrie said.

Police were successful in clearing 74.5 per cent of crimes against the person, he said.

"Some people have unfairly tried to create a climate of fear in Victoria.

"This only frightens the community, especially the elderly, when victims of crime against
the person aged 60 and over actually fell by four per cent in the last year," he said.

Opposition police spokesman Andre Haermeyer has said figures for the 12 months to the end
of May, which showed a 3.7 per cent rise in overall crime, made a mockery of the government's
attempts to talk down crime.

Premier Jeff Kennett said Victorians could take pride from the state having the lowest
crime rate in the nation, some 23 per cent below the national average.

"These are good figures. I can only say that the figures put out, commented on last week by
the ALP, I think were mischievous and designed to hurt and to harm and to scare elderly
people," he said.

Mr Kennett reiterated the increase in overall crime was not the fault of police.

AAP pjb/ra/st/imc/cjh/br

KEYWORD: POLICE (CARRIED EARLIER)

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