The data released by the Crime Statistics Agency shows a rise across all categories, with Greater Shepparton coming in at number five for local government areas with the highest criminal incident rate.
Family violence incidents saw the biggest increase over the past year, with a 7.4 per cent jump from recorded incidents in 2018.
Despite the increases however, Local Area Commander Inspector Troy Hargadon said the statistics were not all bad for our region.
“Police continue to work hard to detect and prevent crime across a number of crime themes on a daily basis,” he said.
“This work can contribute to increases in various crime categories, but the community can also assist in reducing some of these crime categories through some preventative measures.”
The increase in family violence incidents for the year puts Greater Shepparton well above the Victorian average, with the family violence incident rate per 100 000 of population 2498 compared to 1281 for the state.
The data showed the affected family members for these incidents were, for the majority, women aged between 35 and 44.
Insp Hargadon acknowledged this ‘'notable increase'’, saying this could be due to a police investment towards tackling family violence offending.
“The recent investment of dedicated investigators to address this source of community harm has gone a long way to instilling confidence within the community to report incidents of family violence,” he said.
“This enables police to apprehend and hold perpetrators to account.”
While 6358 criminal incidents were recorded in our region last year, 40 per cent of those saw charges being laid, 17 per cent saw no charges laid and 42 per cent remain unsolved.
The data also showed theft from a motor vehicle, criminal damage, and breaching family violence orders were the top principal offence groups, with these mostly occurring in people's homes, in the street or in driveways.
While local police continue working to combat such offending, Insp Hargadon acknowledged more work needed to be done.
“Theft from motor vehicles continues to drive a majority of our crime and in most cases the offence involved an unlocked vehicle or unsecured items within a vehicle,” he said.
“Despite the large volume of community messaging and emphasis on securing personal property and items we still continue to see an increase in this particular offending.”
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