A FALL in crime across the Frankston region has been welcomed by police after the release of the latest crime statistics.
Crime Statistics Agency Victoria figures released on Thursday (15 March) revealed crime generally trended down in 2017 across Frankston compared to 2016.
Thefts fell from 3714 in 2016 to 2879 last year. Property damage dropped from 1004 in 2016 to 900 in 2017.
Assaults totalled 893 in 2017, down from 946 in the previous year.
Burglaries and break and enter offences fell from 922 to 728.
“Police here are very pleased with the strong result,” Frankston Acting Inspector Miro Majstorovic said.
“We’ve worked closely with the public and other government agencies and police regions to be victim focused”.
He said police use remand and bail provisions for repeat offenders and he believed this led to a fall in “volume crimes”.
Frankston Labor MP Paul Edbrooke also welcomed the fall in crime in the electorate ahead of a state election in November.
“A 16 per cent drop in Frankston’s offence rate is the biggest drop ever and clearly displays that properly funding and resourcing our police gets results and I will continue to work with our local officers to ensure they get what they need to keep our community,” he said.
The state opposition said Victorians “are more at risk of becoming victims of violent crime”.
Liberal opposition police spokesman Edward O’Donohue said the Liberal National Coalition would introduce mandatory minimum sentence and abolish concurrent sentences for violent offenders on bail or parole if it wins government in November.
