Victoria crime surges to historic high as arrests break 172-year record

Car thieves, shoplifters and youth gangs are driving Victoria’s worst crime surge in decades, as police make record arrests and bail laws put more teens in custody.

Victoria Police have made more arrests in the past year than at any point in their 172-year history, as a “catastrophic” surge in youth gang violence fuels one of the biggest crime waves the state has seen.

New figures released by the Crime Statistics Agency reveal a 17.1 per cent jump in recorded criminal offences over the 12 months to March 2025, with police logging 627,268 incidents — an increase of more than 91,000 compared to the previous year.

Police made 75,968 arrests — the highest number since electronic records began in 1993 — with nearly 26,000 people taken into custody, many of them multiple times.

It marks the third straight quarter of record-breaking arrest activity, equivalent 208 people arrested every day.

While children aged 10 to 17 make up just 13 per cent of all offenders, they were responsible for 63 per cent of robberies, 46 per cent of aggravated burglaries, and 27 per cent of car thefts. Police arrested 3,300 of the state’s worst youth offenders over the year through Operations Trinity and Alliance.

The surge comes as the Victorian government also released new data on Thursday showing the number of violent teenagers being held in custody without bail almost doubled since the state’s controversial bail reforms came into effect.

Six teenagers arrested following a high-speed car chase.

As of early June, 92 young people were being held on remand in Youth Justice facilities — up from 46 during the same period last year, according to figures released by the Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations David Clayton said the rise in offending and the increased use of remand reflected the scale of the challenge facing frontline police.

“This offending has led to catastrophic consequences in the past year, with stolen cars involved in more than 760 crashes and six people losing their lives,” Mr Clayton said.

“Knife crime is another area of intense focus for Victoria Police, with officers removing an average of 44 blades from the hands of criminals every day this year.”

Premier Jacinta Allan defended her government’s record on crime.

“I will say very clearly that as a result of introducing the toughest bail law in the country, we are seeing more young people on remand,” Ms Allan said in Question Time.

“These crime statistics that were released today do not include the tough new bail changes.”

Police Minister Anthony Carbines, however, conceded that it was “unacceptable” that crime had soared under his watch.

“I would expect that we will start to see in the coming quarters the effect of repeat offenders who are behind bars,” he said.

Victoria Police supplied images of knives and machete's they have seized.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin said the Allan government had “lost control” and the latest crime statistics showed Victorians across the state were being put at risk.

“A crime is committed now every 50 seconds here in this state, a car is stolen every 17 minutes,” Mr Battin said.

“This government has lost control... We need to ensure we see a change of government next year to get crime back under control, to ensure we give police the powers they need and the resources they need to keep communities safe.”

Police also reported an increase in serious crashes involving stolen vehicles — 763 in total over the year, resulting in six fatalities.

Retail theft incidents also hit record highs, increasing nearly 40 per cent. In Melbourne’s CBD alone, police arrested 129 shoplifters and laid more than 1,150 charges since July, targeting thefts exceeding $400,000.

Meanwhile, there were 106,000 family violence incidents recorded and breaches of family violence orders increased by more than 18 per cent — often involving technology, as offenders use mobile phones and social media to target victims.

Police seized more than 7,500 illegal blades this year with an average of 44 per day. Officers were on track to surpass last year’s record of 14,805 seizures, with the number of dangerous weapons like machetes and “zombie knives” increasing across youth crime scenes.

Aggravated burglaries also spiked more than 30 per cent, prompting police to pour 140,000 hours into Operation Trinity to combat high-risk break-ins and car thefts across Melbourne’s suburbs.