News location:

Canberra Today 13°/15° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Crime stats show drop in assaults

ASSAULTS and property damage have declined but we’ve seen an increase in vehicle theft and robberies in the capital, according to the latest crime statistics.

 ACT Policing has issued its online crime statistics for the first quarter of 2012 and compared them with the same period (January to March) in 2011.

Acting Supt of ACT Policing Intelligence Chris Meagher said CrimeStatistics allow members of the community to see what crimes were occurring in the ACT and their suburb, with the ability to view trends over time.

“Of particular significance is the number of assaults reported in the city area has decreased from 101 to 76, or by 24.7 per cent,” acting Supt Meagher said.

“We are concerned, of course, about the 19.2 per cent rise in robberies and the increase in motor vehicle theft. However, it’s through analysing this data that police are able to allocate more patrols and resources into trouble areas, and focus on patterns in particular crime types, which we’ve witnessed recently with several aggravated robbery arrests.”

Acting Supt Meagher also cautioned that any analysis of statistics online should compare the same reporting period to provide an accurate assessment, and warned of statistical anomalies which do not accurately reflect the true crime picture.

“It is important for the community to understand there may be a straight-forward explanation for a spike in offences in their neighbourhood,” he said.

“For example, sexual offences in Narrabundah increased from two in the January to March last year, to 32 in the first quarter of 2012. These 32 sexual offences relate to one historical case which was reported to police in January 2012, and which has since been finalised.

“The smaller the number of reported offences involved, the greater the chance for a dramatic percentage increase which may not reflect the situation. For example, robberies increased in the Belconnen region from 11 in January to March 2011, to 19 this quarter. As these are two relatively small numbers, for comparison purposes the community should look at the change in the number of offences, rather than the percentage increase.”

The number of assaults reported to police across the ACT in this first quarter has decreased by 17.8 per cent when compared with the same period in 2011.

Overall offences in the ACT across property and volume crime, including burglaries, robberies and motor vehicle theft, have continued to trend downward by 8.9 per cent, 26.8 per cent and 21.8 percent respectively when comparing 1 July 2011 to 31 March 2012 to the same period in 2010-11.

CrimeStatistics can be found at police.act.gov.au

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews