Tara Murray
Hume is one of Victoria’s most crime-affected municipalities, recording the fourth-highest number of offences in the state in the 12 months to June.
According to the Crime Statistics Agency, 21,529 offences were recorded in Hume in the year to June, up from 21,063 during the same period last year – an increase of 2.2 per cent.
Only Melbourne, Greater Geelong and Casey had more offences over the same period.
Hume’s top five offence categories were theft from a motor vehicle (2265 offences), breaching family violence orders (2085 offences), other theft (1874 offences), criminal damage (1379 offences) and obtaining benefit by deception (1274 offences).
Craigieburn was Hume’s most crime-affected suburb, with 4159 offences reported to police. Broadmeadows (3924), Sunbury (2731), Campbellfield (1464) and Roxburgh Park (1310) rounded out the top five.
Family violence remains an area of concern in Hume, with family violence incidents increasing 10.5 per cent on the previous 12 months.
There were 4221 cases, the second-highest in the state, behind only Casey.
In Whittlesea, overall offences increased by 3.2 per cent, up to 16,556 offences in the 12 months to June.
Epping recorded the most offences, with 3799 offences reported to police.
Thomastown (2818), Mill Park (2104), Lalor (1645) and Mernda (1343) round out the top five. Of the five, only Mill Park had a decrease in offences from the previous 12 months, dropping from 2285.
Theft from a motor vehicle (1847), other theft (1840), breach of family violence orders (1528), obtaining benefit by deception (1183) and criminal damage (1059) were the most popular crimes in Whittlesea.
Family violence was up 6.1 per cent on the previous 12 months.
Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said thefts from motor vehicles were a major driver of crime across the state, contributing to the state’s six per cent increase in recorded offences.
The latest crime statistics come as police revealed they would be honing in on gangs who were responsible for car thefts, aggravated burglaries, home invasions, serious assaults and knife crimes.
“Some of these gangs we know are responsible for some of the serious and violent crime that’s been occurring in metropolitan Melbourne and also in some rural areas over the past year,” Deputy Commissioner Nugent said.
“What we have observed is these gangs starting to move outside of their local area.
“In the past, most of our policing efforts have been locally. What we will do now is have an integrated and co-ordinated approach to gangs in every region … we’ll be focusing on those people in those gangs causing the most harm.”
