Ballarat third highest number of aggravated burglaries in Victoria

Ballarat has recorded the third-highest number of home break-ins in the state and one of the city’s senior cops says no particular suburb is immune. But he says there’s simple things people can do to reduce the chances of being a victim.

Ballarat recorded 203 residential aggravated burglary offences, the third highest in Victoria.

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Ballarat has the third highest number of aggravated home break-ins in the state.

There were 203 residential aggravated burglary offences committed in the Ballarat local government area in the 12-month period ending on March 31, according to data from the Crime Statistics Agency Victoria analysed by Crime Stoppers.

At 277 offences recorded, Greater Geelong had the highest amount of break-ins in Victoria, followed by Casey in Melbourne’s southeast at 218.

Ballarat Police Acting Inspector Shaun Bingham said the majority of the regional city’s aggravated burglaries were nonviolent and were not confined to particular suburbs.

“Mostly they’re targeting vehicles, aggravated burglaries by virtue of people being home,” he said.

“Little bit opportunistic, people could access garages, people could access houses to get keys to cars.

“It can be extraordinarily traumatic for some people that’s why we are absolutely committed to preventing it in the first place is our ultimate goal.”

Acting Inspector Bingham said he had seen a drop in crime in the last three months, the downward trend partly a result of COVID-19 restrictions.

“It’s completely unacceptable and that’s a focus of us from a police response, every issue of community safety is our number one priority,” he said.

“We’re in the game to drive down crime …. we need to have a holistic picture of what’s causing it …. and look at ways in which we can prevent that from occurring in the first place.”

Acting Inspector Bingham said police were trying to educate the public in how to reduce risks.

“We are working with the community in terms of getting the message out, lock your doors, lock your cars, removing the opportunities for people,” he said.

“If one house is locked, they’re going to go to the next house until they find one that’s unlocked, it’s not necessarily targeting a particular place.”

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Contact reporter Tess Ikonomou

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