CRIME in Kingston suburbs is rising, with police vowing to continue their focus on monitoring youth crime.
In Kingston, the number of criminal incidents rose six percent in the year ending September 2025. A little over 10,000 incidents were recorded.
Thefts from motor vehicles were the most commonly recorded incidents in Kingston. Cheltenham had the most number of offences per suburb, followed by Moorabbin, Clayton South, Mentone, and Chelsea.
The number of family violence incidents in Kingston also continues to rise, increasing by 3.5 percent in the year ending September 2025. Just under 2000 family incidents were reported.
The quarterly figures were released last week by the Crime Statistics Agency. Statewide there were 640,860 criminal offences recorded in the year ending September 2025, an increase of 10.8 percent on the same time period the year prior.
Last week, shocking footage circulated social media showing anti-social behaviour by hundreds of young people across Mordialloc. Victoria Police has highlighted youth crime as a concern – in a statement it said “child offenders aged 12-17 remain a key issue, due to repeat offending and a significant overrepresentation in serious offending.
“During this reporting period, Victoria Police arrested 1,176 children a combined 7,075 times. Recorded offences involving children accounted for 60 percent of carjackings, 54 percent of home invasions, 49.3 percent of aggravated burglaries and 62.2 percent of robberies.”
Victoria Police deputy commissioner regional operations Bob Hill said that Victoria Police is “determined to reduce the crime levels in this state.”
“Far too many innocent people are being impacted by crime with many suffering from ongoing physical, psychological or financial issues. Our hardworking officers continue to hold criminals to account, with 3,000 arrests of Victoria’s worst youth offenders, record family violence enforcement and the removal of 16,000 knives from the hands of dangerous criminals in the past year,” he said. “Significant organisational change is underway in VicPol which will see more police visible in our communities – deterring criminal behaviour and preventing crime are key to our success. A new hi-tech deployment and intelligence hub has also commenced testing and once fully operational will prove crucial in quickly getting on top of unfolding crime across the state.
“Combined, we are confident these changes will lead to less victims of crime and a greater sense of safety within the Victorian community.”
Crime rates in Frankston are comfortably higher than they were last year, with thefts from cars occurring in the thousands.
The number of total criminal incidents in the Frankston local government area in the year ending September 2025 was 13,551, a 10 percent increase when compared to the year ending September 2024. More than 2000 thefts from motor vehicles were recorded, and Frankston was by far the suburb worst-affected.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 24 December 2025