Worse than Frankston

GEELONG now has the third highest number of criminals in the state, second only to Melbourne City and Casey.

Data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows five years ago Greater Geelong was outside the state’s top five but has since overtaken some the state’s past crime capitals, including Frankston, Greater Dandenong and Hume.

There are 79 police service areas across the state.

In the year to June 2017, 7357 separate alleged offender incidents were recorded in the Geelong region, up 15.6 per cent on the previous year and up 43.7 per cent on five years earlier.

Geelong Police Superintendent Craig Gillard said they were numbers to be proud of with local officers working around the clock to arrest those committing crimes across the Greater Geelong region.

“Our arrest rate is up about 14 per cent on last year and we’re clearly had a strong focus around putting our efforts towards those we know are offending,” Supt Gillard said.

“We’ve seen a bit of an increase in youth offenders and our recidivist offending so all our energy is being centred on those areas and we make no apologies for that.

“In my view this is what accounts for the increase and the results are speaking for themselves.

“Our crime rate is down significantly and we’re expecting that to decrease further again when the next quarter’s crime statistics are released.”

Data prepared for the Geelong Advertiser shows more people aged 15 to 19 were caught offending in the year to June compared with any other age group, with 1442 crooks identified. The figure is 324 more in that age group compared with two years ago.

There were also 308 young criminals aged 10 to 14 pro- cessed and 71 law breakers aged over 65 nabbed.

Of the region’s total number of criminals, 42.3 per cent were arrested, 30.3 per cent were issued with summons notices to appear in court and 10.1 per cent were released with cautions.

Supt Gillard said region police would continue to hold law breakers to account and made no apologies for the hard-line approach.

“We’re working hard to understand and identity these offences and they’re always going to be held accountable no matter what,” he said.

“It’s a key part of what we do and this makes the community a bit safer.” Alleged offender incidents for

the year to June 2017: 1. Melbourne...................... 12,885 2. Casey.................................. 7539 3. Greater Geelong................7357 4. Greater Dandenong …..... 6972 5. Hume................................ 6669 6. Frankston......................... 6432 7. Latrobe.............................. 6130

WEEKEND OF ASSAULTS: P12