Crime in your hood: One suburb rules them all for break-ins in the inner west

WATERLOO AND Redfern are the most popular places for Sydney burglars to live. While shoplifters prefer Surry Hills. See how your suburb rates on crime with our INTERACTIVE MAPS.

Music producer Matt Speer’s had his entire music catalogue which was stored on his computer, stolen from his car in Newtown last year. Picture: John Fotiadis

• Eastern suburbs crime stats
• Southwest Sydney crime stats

WHEN they’re not breaking into other people’s houses across Sydney, burglars prefer to call Waterloo and Redfern home. Shoplifters on the other hand like to put their feet up down the road in Surry Hills.

​Exclusive data released to Newslocal by the NSW Bureau of Crime statistics and Research (BOCSAR) reveals that the inner city suburbs are home to a high proportion of persons of interest (POIs) in relation to property crime. POIs may not have been convicted in court, however they have been proceeded against by the police.

F​rom 2011 to March 2017 more than 300 suspected burglars were recorded living at Waterloo and Redfern, the biggest concentration in Sydney. Another 110 were at Glebe, making the inner suburbs a honey pot for thieves.

Over the same period figures show the highest number of shoplifters in Sydney — 710 — was to be found in digs at Surry Hills.

But most burglaries in the inner west weren’t in the inner city ring. The suburb with the dubious honour of being the main target for offenders was Strathfield which was hit by 1082 break-ins since 2011.

It was one of several suburbs west of the CBD bearing the brunt of burglaries and car thefts despite break-ins dropping to their lowest level in 15 years.

DWELLING BREAK AND ENTERS BY POSTCODE

BOCSAR​ figures show 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.

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

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.

CAR THEFTS BY POSTCODE

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The BOCSAR data also reveals suburbs where alleged offenders or persons of interest (POIs) reside. POIs may not have been convicted in court, however they have been proceeded against by the police.

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

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.

Former Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology president Professor Rick Sarre of the University of SA.

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.

Police at a Kings Cross pawn shop in 2015. Police allege a syndicate stole more than 800 computers from schools.

“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.

Police arrested more than 120 alleged shoplifters in the CBD, Surry Hills, Waterloo, Zetland, and Bondi Junction in December.

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.

Finger prints at the Police Forensic Unit. most of the NSW crime scenes are processed there.

Shoplifting reports between 2011 and March 2017 centred around 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).

A 78-year-old woman was taken to hospital after disturbing two robbers at her house in Redfern in 2012.

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.

Constable Marie Godzik warning of phone thefts while people were playing Pokemon Go last year. Picture: Daniel Aarons

The top Sydney suburbs for vandalism reports were: Blacktown, Sydney, Penrith, Parramatta and Campbelltown, while the top suburbs that vandal POIs called home were: Blacktown, Surry Hills, Doonside, Macquarie Fields and Liverpool.

ROBBERIES IN SOUTH WEST SYDNEY LINKED

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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