THE inner north saw the most reports of criminal offences in the January to March quarter, reveal ACT police’s latest quarterly crime statistics. 

The inner north had the most reports of crime over the three-month period at 1569 (excluding traffic and criminal infringement notices) while the Molonglo district saw the least reports of crime at 115 – 160 including traffic and criminal infringement notices.

The district with the second least reported crimes was Weston Creek at 276 with Woden having the third least reported crimes at 506.

Throughout all districts, the number of sexual assaults reported to police have reached a two-year low.

The January to March crime statistics revealed that sexual assaults declined from 122 to 106, the lowest since a quarter in 2018, police report.

Canberra’s inner north saw the most reported sexual assaults at 30, with 13 of those reports occurring in the city centre. Tuggeranong saw the second most reports at 24, while the Molonglo district saw the least reports – one.

Assaults were down from 747 to 663, with the inner north seeing the most reports of assault (156), followed by Belconnen (136).

Burglary was high in Belconnen with 108 reports in the district, while the inner north had the second most reports of burglary at 94. Overall burglary reports decreased from 624 to 464.

An overall decrease was also seen in robberies, down from 65 to 33, stolen motor vehicles fell from 317 to 291, and reports of property damage declined from 1005 to 896.

The comparison holds up on Canberra’s roads, with the number of traffic infringement notices issued decreasing from 2780 in the first quarter of 2020 to 1545 in the same period in 2021.

Deputy chief police officer Michael Chew said the crime trends were encouraging and has reminded Canberrans of the importance of reporting all crimes.

“We have long known that Canberra is one of the safest places in Australia to live and ACT Policing is committed to ensuring that remains the case,” he said.

“I encourage any victim of any crime to let police know about it. They can call us or visit a police station, and in the case of historic sexual assault there’s the option to report it online.

“Police take all reports of crime seriously, and we will do everything we can to empower the victims of crime. Ensuring their welfare is our priority and victims can choose to start or stop the process at any point in the investigation.”

While ACT Policing urge any victims of crime to report it as soon as possible, in addition to doing so in person at any police station in Canberra, there are other ways to report crime:

•          To report a crime that it is not life threatening or an emergency, call Police Assistance on 131 444.
•          Anyone with information about illegal or suspicious activity, which may assist in solving a crime and may be useful to Police should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333000 or report online at crimestoppersact.com.au
•          Anyone wishing to report a historic sexual assault (one which occurred more than six months ago) can do so on the ACT Policing website.