2 months ago
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Car thefts fuelled by youth crime have soared to the highest levels in more than two decades in Victoria, as police warn as many as one in four cars are being stolen.
Youth crime has continued to rise, with children aged between 12 and 17 responsible for 60 per cent of all carjackings, 54 per cent of home invasions, 49.3 per cent of aggravated burglaries and 62.2 per cent of all robberies in the 12 months to September.
Police officers tackle a person at Northland shopping centre in Preston after a brawl involving knives broke out there earlier this year.
There were 640,860 crimes recorded in Victoria in the year to September, an increase of more than 10 per cent, or 62,671 more offences, compared with the previous year.
Crime Statistics Agency figures released on Thursday also show during this period, Victoria Police arrested 1176 children a combined 7075 times.
The figures reveal that car thefts have not been as high across the state since 2002.
Retail theft has also remained at record levels.
Police said retail staff continue to deal with a crime every few minutes as the state grapples with a surge in aggression towards workers as well as other antisocial behaviour in shopping centres.
To deal with this, police and protective services officers have been deployed to four of Melbourne’s biggest shopping centres every day.
A police operation known as Pulse, which began on December 8, has so far led to 43 arrests in shopping centres with officers also issuing 14 penalty notices and seizing eight weapons. More than a third of detected offences were for stealing from shops.
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The number of Victorians who have become victims of crime has also soared. The statistics showed 235,425 people became victims of crime last year, an increase of 10.7 per cent on the same period last year. This equated to about 3 per cent of the of state’s population being directly impacted by crime.
Family violence order breaches are also on the rise, with 63,664 incidents reported, an increase of more than 8 per cent over the previous reporting period, making it the fourth-fastest-growing type of offence in the state.
Police intelligence shows most of these breaches relate to offenders using mobile phones and social media to target victims, particularly ex-partners.
Police said in the year to September, police arrested 3100 youth gang members, under-age burglars and young car thieves, as part of specialised operations targeting child crime and car thefts.
Home invasions also remain a major concern for police, with 7892 aggravated home burglaries reported, an increase of 973 offences, or a 14 per cent increase.
Police detectives earlier this month after arresting four adults who allegedly orchestrated a network of child offenders to steal more than $2 million worth of cigarettes and cash from service stations and supermarkets across Melbourne.
Police noted while there had recently been some confrontational aggravated burglaries, their
intelligence continues to show most aggravated burglaries involve no physical violence.
Police said officers had seized about 300 electronic devices, which include technology programmed to mimic keys, which can be plugged into a vehicle’s on-board diagnostic port to override the security system and start the engine.
The data released on Thursday did not include any new data on knife crime, but Crime Statistics Agency data released last month showed incidents involving machetes more than tripled between 2021 and last year, climbing from 610 incidents to 2061, with young males responsible for two in five of these incidents.
Police said officers had seized more than 16,000 edged weapons this year, equivalent to about 47 knives per day, exceeding the previous record of 14,808 knives seized last year.
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Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Bob Hill said police remained determined to reduce crime levels in Victoria.
“Far too many innocent people are being impacted by crime with many suffering from ongoing physical, psychological or financial issues,” Hill said.
“Our hardworking officers continue to hold criminals to account, with 3000 arrests of Victoria’s worst youth offenders, record family violence enforcement and the removal of 16,000 knives from the hands of dangerous criminals in the past year.”
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