New statistics reveal 20 per cent jump in ‘crimes against the person’ Territory-wide

TERRITORY-WIDE ‘crime against the person’ offences jumped 20 per cent last year compared to 2019 while crimes against property dropped 12 per cent

Property crime has dropped in 2020 compared to 2019 however there has been a spike in crime against the person

TERRITORY-WIDE “crime against the person” offences jumped 20 per cent last year compared to 2019 while crimes against property dropped 12 per cent.

The latest crime statistics reveal domestic violence-related assaults and alcohol-related assaults both jumped 27 per cent over the same time period.

Assaults in general are up 21 per cent Territory wide.

Acting Commander Tony Deutrom said there had been significant improvements made around decreasing property crime in the NT.

“We need to be excited about the fact that we’ve seen these considerable decreases with property crime, I will continue to work hard in that area, but the offences against the person, obviously need some more work,” he said.

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He said alcohol-related crime continued to be an issue.

“It’s an unfortunate fact for a number of people in the Territory where they suffer family violence as a result of alcohol-related crime. Northern Territory overall offences against persons have increased by 22 per cent,” he said.

“From a Darwin perspective, assault offences against the person have increased by 21 per cent domestic violence assault offences have increased by 23 per cent and alcohol-related offences have increased by 23 per cent, so that correlation is pretty well perfectly related to alcohol and offences against the person.”

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He said police were working with stakeholders to address the alcohol related harm and would be running an operation next week in Darwin to target anti-social behaviour.

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