Michelle Roberts

Michelle Roberts

Minister for Housing and Works; Indigenous Affairs; Heritage; Land Information

    Government's crime fighting strategy is a winner

    28/01/2005 5:06 PM
     
    28/1/05

    The Gallop Government’s crackdown on crime has achieved another massive drop in the State’s crime rate.

    Releasing the latest police statistics, Police Minister Michelle Roberts said there had been a 13 per cent decrease in the overall crime figures during the last six months (July - December) compared with the same period the previous year.

    Mrs Roberts said fighting crime had been a substantial Budget investment by the Gallop Government over the last four years and the focus on smarter and fast policing was now paying off with lower crime rates and higher clearance rates.

    “This is yet another stunning achievement which translates into nearly 17,000 fewer offences and clearance rates are up by nearly eight per cent,” she said.

    “Community safety is a priority for the Gallop Government and these results reflect that commitment which has been achieved through the hard work of our frontline police officers and community support.”

    The Minister said there had been an overall drop of nearly 18 per cent in property offences and a 3.5 per cent improvement in the clearance rates.

    Mrs Roberts said the Gallop Government’s strong economic management had provided for a substantial $175million boost to police funding and an additional 250 police officers to target crimes such as burglary.

    “Burglaries continue to fall, with more than a 25 per cent drop in home burglaries and nearly a 24 per cent drop in commercial burglaries,” she said.

    “More police, the success of DNA profiling, hard-hitting police operations and effective anti-burglar campaigns are now having a real impact.”

    The results include:
    • more than a 39 per cent drop in aggravated robbery;
    • homicide has dropped by nearly 21 per cent;
    • a 28 per cent drop in car theft;
    • more than a 16 per cent drop in sexual assault;
    • a 19 per cent drop in graffiti;
    • more than an 11 per cent drop in property damage; and
    • nearly a 16 per cent drop in theft.
    Mrs Roberts said an increase in the number of reported offences against the person was due to more people reporting these crimes as part of the State Government’s attack on anti-social behaviour, domestic violence and child abuse.

    She said increased reports of assault (up 21 per cent) and threatening behaviour (up 59 per cent) were the result of good frontline police work in targeting these anti-social crimes.

    “The Gallop Government announced a $75million program following the Gordon Inquiry, which includes more police and more police stations to focus on abhorrent crime, such as domestic violence and assault,” the Minister said.

    “We have placed specialised domestic violence police officers in each police district to target these crimes and the increase in the statistics reflects this intensity.

    “I congratulate Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan for his Frontline First Policy which is putting more police into difficult crime-fighting areas and the statistics show that these crimes are being reported and dealt with.”

    Minister's office: 9213 6600