Serious crime a rising worry
SERIOUS crime increased by 11 per cent in Tasmania during the past financial year despite the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management’s priority focus on reducing serious and organised crime.
The rise followed a one per cent increase the previous year, according to the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management annual report released yesterday.
Serious assault accounted for 31 per cent of serious crimes, serious sexual assault 21 per cent and robbery 17 per cent.
Police also recorded 489 serious drug offenders in 2016-17 — a 19 per cent increase on the previous year.
The Northern District experienced a challenging year as it dealt with five murder investigations requiring “significant forensic and investigative resources”, the report said.
In all five cases offenders were identified and prosecuted.
Greens police spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the figures showed the Government’s “tough on crime” mantra was a failure.
“This ... confirms on almost every crime measure the Liberals have promised to act the statistics are not good,” Dr Woodruff said.
“The Liberals want their pound of flesh from people who break the law, even if this means creating more victims in the future.
“This just leads to more crime, and more serious criminals.”
Labor police spokesman David Llewellyn said the Liberals needed to stop pretending tough talk would reduce crime.
“We need to be smart on crime, not ‘tough on crime’ and look at what we can do to address the root causes of criminal behaviour,” Mr Llewellyn said.
Police Minister Rene Hidding said several one-off serious crimes had inflated the overall 2016-17 serious crime figure, including nine murders — up from two the previous year.
“Importantly, all of these crimes have been cleared, and the clearance rate for serious crime has improved to 84 per cent,” Mr Hidding said.
“Tasmania also still has one of the lowest crime rates in the country, with ABS stats from July confirming the state has the lowest or equal lowest victim rate for the majority of offence categories in 2016.”