Crime statistics: New data reveals worst-hit places southeast of Melbourne
Victoria Police say they are worried after new data revealed an alarming jump in crime across the state. We’ve crunched the numbers to reveal the worst-hit areas in Melbourne’s southeast.
South East
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Crime rates across the southeast have spiked, with latest statistics revealing theft from cars and shop theft are a major problem in the region.
Brighton was the hotspot for crime in Bayside, recording 963 criminal incidents, up from 901 the previous year.
Theft from motor vehicles remains the biggest issue in Bayside, with 1003 incidents plaguing the affluent area compared with 742 in the year prior.
There was a nine per cent spike in total criminal incidents in Bayside, with 4024 incidents recorded as opposed to 3696 the year before.
In Casey, theft from retail premises rose sharply from 734 in 2018 to 952 incidents in 2019.
Narre Warren (2490), Cranbourne (2299) and Berwick (1946) were the top three suburbs for all crime in Casey during 2019.
Greater Dandenong once again had one of the highest rates of crime in the state and incidents increased by nearly five per cent.
Dandenong recorded 6036 incidents while the entire council area saw 14,710 incidents in 2019, compared with 14,082 in 2018.
Those figures made it the second-worst tally for crime in the past 10 years for the area.
Crime jumped by more than 14 per cent in Glen Eira, led by theft from motor vehicles with 1232 incidents in 2019 compared to 969 in 2018.
Bentleigh East (939), Bentleigh (815) and Carnegie (674) were the worst hit suburbs for incidents last year, all recording an increase in crime.
And Glen Eira may have been well short of the state average for criminal incidents, criminal incidents were still up, with 5706 compared with 4978 in 2018.
For the second year in a row, crime in Kingston increased, albeit by just five per cent.
Cheltenham was the hotspot for crime in the municipality, with Southland Shopping Centre a target of theft.
Moorabbin (995), which is also home to DFO shopping centre and a number of other retail outlets, was the second-hardest hit suburb in Kingston, while Mordialloc (660) was third.
There were 598 incidents relating to theft from retail stores in the area, down the small margin of just two incidents from 2018.
Three suburbs on the Mornington Peninsula accounted for almost half of all incidents in 2019.
Mornington (1593), Hastings (1276) and Rosebud (1154) came in ahead of Rye (533).
The entire Peninsula saw an almost seven per cent increase in crime, recording 8680 incidents in 2019 as opposed to 8138 the year before.
Despite recording a higher number of incidents than the state average, Port Phillip managed to record its lowest tally in ten years.
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Theft from motor vehicles (1651 compared to 1767), criminal damage (687 compared to 730) and residential non-aggravated burglary (552 compared to 587) all recorded fewer incidents in 2019 despite featuring in the area’s top five crimes.
St Kilda was still the hotspot for crime in Port Phillip, recording 3329 incidents in 2019.
Incidents in lanes, streets and on footpaths dropped to 2756 in 2019 from 3190 in 2018.
But there was some good news for the southeast, with Frankston recording its second-lowest tally for criminal incidents in the past five years – falling two per cent from 2018.
Total criminal incidents in the area fell to 11,054 in 2019, opposed to 11,300 in 2018.
Statewide, the number of criminal incidents was up nearly five per cent last year compared with 2018, with family violence incidents recording a near seven per cent spike.
Assistant Commissioner Wendy Steendam said Victoria Police was concerned with the increase in crime across the state.
“The reason we are concerned is because we understand that real people are behind these numbers and have experienced traumatic events or sometimes life-changing events,” she said.
High harm, high impact crime was especially concerning to police, Ms Steendam said.
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