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Mandurah: success seen in fight against crime

Rachel FennerMandurah Coastal Times

Mandurah officer in charge Stephen Thompson said he checks crime statistics regularly.

“Crime statistics are monitored and analysed on a daily basis, this can include yearly, monthly, weekly and significantly statistics from the last 24 hours,” he said.

“This analysis plays a fundamental part in assessing how we deploy police resources.”

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Snr Sgt Thompson said it has been about targeting people and hotspots. “So you can see why some suburbs go down,” he said. “There are a lot of offences committed by small amounts of people.”

The crime rate has increased dramatically in newer suburbs such as Dawesville, Lakelands and parts of Halls Head.

Sgt Thompson attributes a lot of these to theft from unoccupied homes under construction.

“Thefts from homes under construction are still classified as burglaries, even though no one lives inside,” he said.

Domestic violence has also increased over the course of the year. “We use a different strategy for that,” Sgt Thompson said. “You can’t police people’s homes, so it is complex. Domestic violence is a whole of community issue.”

All in all, tackling crime comes down to targeting people, places and hot spots, and not about blaming a single root cause like methamphetamine, according to Sgt Thompson.

“It’s about being in the right place at the right time and looking at prolific offenders,” he said.