Crime statistics under the spotlight at forum

Eastern region division five includes Baw Baw police services area and inspector Chris Major joined inspectors from across the region for the Commsafe forum.

Assistant commissioners and superintendents discussed key community and policing issues.

The community based forum, held in Morwell included community stakeholders and representatives, as well as business and industry representatives.

Mr Major told the forum Baw Baw had experienced a high rate of crime by offenders and gangs coming into the area from Melbourne.

He said crime gangs hit a number of Telstra stores last year.

He said these offenders came into town, committed smash and grab type crimes then drove out of town at a fast rate of speed.

Mr Major said Baw Baw CIU senior sergeant Gordon Hynd and his crew had done a lot of extra work on those crimes.

He said Mr Hynd had worked closely with the business owners in increasing security and “we haven’t had those gangs back in the past nine months.”

“Criminals monitor police activity and know what our activity is before they pounce.

“Criminals don’t look at shire borders. We identified that quite some time ago and that has impacted a lot on Baw Baw,” he said.

Family violence figures released at the forum showed an 8.3 per cent decrease in family violence, across the region which also reflected the trend in Baw Baw.

But in neighbouring Latrobe, the figures were reported to be “extremely high per 100,000 people.”

Victoria Police superintendent Wayne Viney said extra detectives, liaison officers and dedicated training of officers were assisting police to respond to family violence incidents.

Mr Viney said family violence was a “significant driver of our crime and impact on our community.”

Divisional family violence manager senior sergeant Howard Jones said the figures only reflected the reported family violence, which was “just a fraction of the sufferingNIC that goes on every day.”

He said in Latrobe, victims were more likely to report family violence because police were investigating complaints and taking action.

He said recidivist offenders were the cause of most reports.

Mr Jones said family violence units in Baw Baw, Latrobe and Bass Coast were helping victims to break the cycle.

Malcolm Dickson of Warragul asked why police communications in Gippsland were not on a “secure network.”

Divisional commander Geoff Kedge explained a new digital closed network was being rolled out across the region in January.

Michael Fozard of Trafalgar asked about hoon driving, saying there had been a number of incidents in Trafalgar and Yarragon.

Warragul Police senior sergeant Duncan Bartley said highway patrol units and Trafalgar Police had been very active in recent weeks and had intercepted a number of speeding and hoon drivers.