Crime in your hood: Where the west’s burglars, car thieves and vandals live

A SUBURB-by-suburb breakdown of crime stats shows burglars and car thieves love working in Blacktown and Penrith. See how your suburb rates with our INTERACTIVE MAPS.

UNFORTUNATELY for Blacktown, it’s number one on the list of must-do suburbs for Sydney’s burglars, car thieves and vandals.

And Penrith is not far behind as a target for crims specialising in break-and-enters since 2011.

Exclusive data released to Newslocal by the NSW Bureau of Crime statistics and Research (BOCSAR) shows the top ten suburbs for home break-ins are all in the west or south west, with the worst nine suburbs for car theft also in this region.

Blacktown recorded 1457 break-ins between 2011 and March 2017, the highest in Sydney, while Penrith was also in the top ten with 818.

Affluent suburbs in Sydney’s east or north shore had much lower burglary rates: in the same period Middle Cove in the north and Watsons Bay in the east each recorded fewer than 20 break-ins.

And it’s a similar good news story if you live in Arndell Park where residents will be relieved to know there were only two burglaries in the past six years.

BOCSAR data also reveals suburbs where alleged offenders or persons of interest (POIs) reside and it shows most burglars don’t come from Blacktown. POIs may not have been convicted in court, however they have been proceeded against by the police.

THEFTS FROM DWELLINGS BY POSTCODE

The highest number of suspected thieves lived in the inner city. In the west, most burglary POIs were at Bidwill (134), Mt Druitt (125) and Doonside (119).

Former Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology president Professor Rick Sarre of the University of SA said the decline in property crime was not spread equally.

“We know criminals target homes that don’t have security alarms but that means the rich can get protection and the poor don’t,” Prof Sarre said.

But malicious damage stats do not show Blacktown in a good light. Blacktown topped the list for vandalism reports in the whole of Sydney with 4101.

CAR THEFTS BY POSTCODE

The other hot spots were Sydney CBD, Penrith, Parramatta and Campbelltown. The top suburb that vandal POIs called home was Blacktown again with 666 followed by Surry Hills 426 and Doonside 402.

Car thefts followed a similar pattern where some western Sydney suburbs saw hundreds of cars nicked, many of them Holden Commodores. Stealing from cars was also a western Sydney specialty with some places suffering more than a thousand thefts in the six years to March 2017.

VANDALISM BY POSTCODE

Graffiti in Heliotrope Crescent, Blacktown.

The top suburbs cars were pinched from were Bankstown, Blacktown, Liverpool, Penrith, Auburn and Greenacre. The top suburbs for car thief POIs were Marrickville, Blacktown, Glebe, Guildford, and Whalan.

Half of all cars are stolen from a home, and Holden Commodores made up five of the top 10 most stolen car models according to the national motor vehicle theft reduction council.

A stolen car crash following a police pursuit at Canley Vale.

Three quarters of car thefts are short term and used for transport, joy-riding or committing other crimes, the council reported.

Prof Sarre said car thefts were down about 75 per cent over the past 20 years as the only way to steal a car these days was to break into a home to the steal keys.

Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali has offered a reward for identify vandals.

“While immobilisers are typically built into cars after 2001, they offer no protection if a thief has access to your keys,” Prof Sarre said.

The most common crimes reported to NSW Police between 2011 and March 2017 were malicious damage (vandalism), stealing from cars and fraud.

Most suspected thieves live in the inner city.

The top Sydney suburbs where thieves broke into cars were: Blacktown (2575 reports), Liverpool (2395), Surry Hills (1975), Bankstown (1792), Campbelltown (1526) and Mount Druitt (1495).

In the same period the top Sydney suburbs where POIs that steal from cars lived were: Waterloo, Redfern, Marrickville, Surry Hills and West Pymble.

Blacktown recorded more than 1400 burglaries since 2011.

Shoplifting reports between 2011 and March 2017 centred on large shopping complexes in Sydney, Parramatta, Blacktown, Liverpool, Bondi Junction.

The most POIs for this crime were living in Surry Hills (710), Blacktown (637), Redfern (598), Macquarie Fields (524), and Waterloo (524).

Dr Garner Clancey.

CCTV footage capturing the moment a thief tries to steal a car.

Criminologist and Senior Lecturer at Sydney University Dr Garner Clancey said criminals “generally” stay close to home and hit targets they know when doing their worst.

“The journey to crime data suggests offenders travel quite short distances, only a couple of kilometres and tend to offend in areas they know. because they have an understanding of likely chances to be caught,” Dr Clancey said.

The BOCSAR data attributes some POIs to suburbs if they were living in local jails, so the numbers for areas such as Silverwater and Goulburn are inflated and excluded from the above analysis.

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