Be vigilant, not a crime victim

The North West Metropolitan District’s Acting Superintendent Wayne Dohmen said police were ‘slowly but surely’ decreasing the occurrence of crime, with incidents down 16.7 per cent compared to the same time last year.

‘From a district perspective our figures are still progressing well overall across all categories of offences,’ Supt Dohmen said.

‘However we are approaching summer and the summer months carry more changes of trends.’

Supt Dohmen said year-to-date figures to October 6 showed sexual assaults were down 23.2 per cent, domestic assaults were down 14.9 per cent and non-domestic assaults were down 16 per cent.

With the latter, he said there had been 237 incidents so far in 2013, compared to 282 at the same time last year, which he attributed to general policing methods.

‘We identify the hot spots,’ he said.

‘If we have a continuing trend or emerging trend, we just concentrate our resources there to stamp it out.’

The district chief said threatening behaviour had also decreased, by 14.8 per cent, while incidents of general disorderly conduct increased by 15 per cent.

Robberies were up by 18.6 per cent, although Supt Dohmen said the number of offences were low.

‘the figures are simply 43 last year, 51 now ” an extra eight robberies,’ he said.

‘Most of those are soft-target robberies ” that is the vulnerable and the young, and those that are walking along alone at night.’

Supt Dohmen said burglaries had dropped by 12.7 per cent, vehicle thefts by 17.3 per cent and stealings were 20.4 per cent lower than the same period last year.

Property damage was also lower, by 14 per cent, and reports of graffiti had dropped to 87 from 97 in 2012, a 10.3 per cent reduction. The reported number of drug offences had fallen by 46.2 per cent, but that did not reflect the quantities of drugs found by police.

‘We are progressing slowly but surely to improving our effectiveness in terms of reducing crime,’ he said.

‘But we know that the summer months are approaching.

‘With the warmer weather, there are more people out and about, moving around.’

Supt Dohmen said police and residents would have to be vigilant about safety and security, locking up their homes, vehicles and businesses.