Crime down

Latest figures released by the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) show a slight decrease in the total number of criminal incidents over the past year in Southbank.

The figures from the CSA, which tracked crime statistics between April 2018 and March 2019, recorded a total of 2,447 offences in Southbank; down from 2,463 the previous year.

Crimes against the person (455), drug offences (142) and public order and security offences (290) increased from the previous year. However, property and deception offences (1,428) went down.

The trend in Southbank is contrary to the statewide statistics, which show a two per cent rise overall. A total of 387,157 criminal incidents were recorded; an increase from 379,396 incidents in the previous year.

Assaults are up 3.6 per cent, robbery is up 6.4 per cent and drug use and possession is up 12 per cent.

Alleged offender incidents recorded by Victoria Police continued to increase over the past 12 months, up by 6.9 per cent to 178,731. This represents a 45.2 per cent increase and is the highest number on record for the CSA data.