General News
24 June, 2023
Common crimes down - Local police optimistic others will follow
Horsham Rural City's two most common criminal offences, family violence order (FVO) breach and criminal damage, have both fallen in the past 12 months. In figures for the period April 2022–March 2023 released by Australia's Crime Statistics...
Horsham Rural City's two most common criminal offences, family violence order (FVO) breach and criminal damage, have both fallen in the past 12 months.
In figures for the period April 2022–March 2023 released by Australia's Crime Statistics Agency, breaching an FVO remained the single biggest crime committed in Horsham Rural City, accounting for 174 of the municipality's 1639 incidents.
Criminal damage was reported 148 times.
By contrast, breaching bail conditions showed a large jump year-on-year, from 107 to 139.
Other theft dropped from 93 to 88, but common assault increased from 78 to 85.
Acting Inspector Matt Haughton said he believed the overall change was minimal thanks to his team's involvement with local residents.
"We're very lucky to have a good relationship with the community, which helps us," Acting Inspector Haughton said.
"Extensive CCTV footage in the area also helps, along with working with people around us to make sure that we keep this statistic as low as possible."
As Victoria as a whole experienced a rise in crime of 5.6 per cent, the top five population centres in the rural city – Horsham itself, Haven, Drung, Natimuk and Dooen – all increased the number of times police had to be called.
In Horsham, total criminal incidents rose only slightly, from 1453 in 2021–22 to 1455 in 2022–23.
However, the remaining four suburbs or towns all showed much more significant growth: Haven from 8 to 29; Drung from 8 to 19; Natimuk from 10 to 15; and Dooen from 9 to 15.
Acting Inspector Haughton said police were "continuing to work with the community around us to keep fighting crime in the region" and this would remain the strategy moving forward.
In Horsham Rural City, more than one-third of the 1639 investigations undertaken by police were based in a house (583).
Other locations included on a street/lane/footpath (255), at flat/unit/apartment (98), around the courthouse (66) or on licensed premises (50).
Police charged an offender or offenders in 46.7 per cent of cases; 22.1 per cent of the time no charges were laid.
In all, 31.1 per cent of cases were unsolved.
By comparison, among Horsham Rural City's neighbours, Hindmarsh Shire had a dramatic drop in crime of 31.9 per cent while Yarriambiack Shire saw a rise of 2 per cent.
Across Victoria, 361,140 individual incidents were documented – up by 5.6 per cent from 341,098 a year earlier.