VICTORIA'S public transport system has been hit by a wave of crime, with rapes and robberies dramatically up, police figures reveal.

Victoria Police statistics show crime per capita has dropped for the seventh year running, despite juvenile offences and robberies being up in the last financial year.

While the state's overall crime rate has fallen 24.5 per cent (for each 100,000 people) since 2000-01, raw crime figures show overall crimes against people were slightly up.

Offences involving property continued a steady decline.

Assaults and robberies were on the rise among commuters.

Figures show there were 10 rapes, 200 non-rape sex offences, 349 robberies and 1215 assaults on our railway, bus and tram services.

It represents a 66.7 per cent rise in rapes on public transport property, while robberies rose 24.2 per cent and assaults were up 17.3 per cent.

In statewide statistics not limited to public transport:

ROBBERY rose 15.7 per cent.

ROBBERY by female juveniles rose by 67 per cent.

STOLEN sat-navs were blamed for a 315 per cent rise in thefts from cars.

RAPES were down to 1562 from 1700 (8.1 per cent).

ASSAULT rates were almost stable, up 0.7 per cent to 31,285.

ASSAULTS on victims aged over 60 were up 7.4 per cent.

The biggest drop in crime occurred in Wyndham, based around Werribee, which recorded a 24.5 per cent fall in crime overall. Frankston, Dandenong, Knox, Moonee Valley and Stonnington also recorded a decrease in crime rates.

Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said police would tackle the growing trend of petty robberies, including theft of mobiles and iPods, which was raising the theft figure.

Ms Nixon said the force's Safe Streets Taskforce was winning its battle to curb assaults in Melbourne's CBD.

It had made 316 arrests and issued 869 penalty notices, after visiting 5000 licensed venues since its launch last year.

"In some cases we are seeing a decrease in some of our police service areas but it's about a 1.8 per cent reduction in assaults that we are starting to see," Ms Nixon said.

"We've certainly seen within the city itself quite dramatic crime reductions -- 5 per cent in region one."

Family violence was almost 7 per cent higher and made up 23.7 per cent of all assaults.

Police sought intervention orders in 7061 instances, a 1.7 per cent rise.

"In 2003-04, we put into place a family violence strategy that was about having people report family violence, so that accounts for a proportion of the increase," Ms Nixon said.

She did not commit to putting more police on the streets next financial year.

"Victoria Police has a $2 billion budget . . . and if there were more police there would be less teachers, perhaps, or less of something else."

Police Association legal manager Sen-Sgt Greg Davies said improvements in stats were due to overworked members "working on the red line".

Source: Herald Sun   19.08.2008

Related Reading

Cop-out call on the streets

TIME was when Werribee's greatest claim to fame was its infamous sewerage farm, a landmark the locals would just as soon never hear mentioned again.

After yesterday, when Police Commissioner Christine Nixon stopped by to announce lawlessness was on the run, the town may have a fresh distinction.

Call it the She Said What Syndrome!

Or if that is too much of a mouthful, the plain old Nixon Twitch.

Whatever you label it, reaction to the latest Victoria Police statistics purporting to show a 24.5 per cent fall in crime in Wyndham seldom varied.

Jaws dropped, eyebrows leapt skyward and sceptical heads began shaking.

That's how the psychological condition first manifests itself.

After that come the wisecracks.

"Nixon came here to announce that?" marvelled a middle-aged bloke who was lugging an armful of files to his office on the main street.

"Well, I hope she was careful because I wouldn't want to hear she'd been mugged."

Shopkeepers, strollers, mums with babies -- it didn't matter who you asked, that incredulous reaction never varied.

"She should have been here the other day when that bloke was belting the other guy over the head with an iron bar," Veronica Carides said, pointing in the general direction of the train station.

"At lunchtime, right in the middle of the shopping centre, and he's going whack, whack, whack!

"People were dashing everywhere trying to get out of their way. It was really ugly."

Ms Carides' mum, Beatrice, tried to explain the incredible shrinking crime statistics.

"We haven't enough police in Werribee, so I think there is no one to tell Nixon about the kids and drugs," she said. "That is why the crime seems down -- she doesn't learn about it."

Around the corner, a shopkeeper laughed out loud at the notion that Werribee's streets were no longer quite so mean.

While declining to give his name, and asking that his store not be mentioned because "I don't want any more trouble", he was quick to recall the recent visit of a customer he hopes never to see again.

"This big guy, and I mean a really big guy, came in with a pair of bolt cutters, snipped the security chain and walked right out with my merchandise," he said.

Other merchants pointed to the graffiti tags scratched into their windows, lamented the groups of youths who congregated at the station, or bemoaned the rumble of hoon-mobiles in the night.

"Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful place to live in most ways," said Jan Taylor, 61, who moved there from Camperdown last year.

"But my elderly neighbour has another view.

"The kids have smashed her garden statue and they even stole a pair of old boots she left out on the porch.

"Little stuff like that, how much of it ever gets reported to police in the first place, I wonder?"

As he helped wife Jackie load the family car with groceries, Donny Colic flashed a sly smile and hoped that Christine Nixon had enjoyed her visit.

"It's good to have an extra cop on the street," Mr Colic said.

"You don't see too many of them out this way."

Source: Herald Sun 19.08.2008