THE South West policing district did well as a whole this end of financial year, with crime rates down 12.9 percent - the best result of all police regional districts.
Busselton police sub-district saw a 14.6 percent drop in crime, of which Senior Sergeant Principe said was quite an achievement considering the high number of tourists that frequent the area as well as population growth.
Senior Sergeant Principe said illicit drugs were the biggest driving force behind crime in Busselton with drug detection rates and apprehensions increasing from 185 in the 2012/2013 financial year to 305 in the 2013/2014 financial year which was a 64.9 percent increase in detections.
“The majority of stealing and burglary offences in Busselton involve juveniles,” he said.
“They feature prominently when it comes to alcohol and illicit drug use as their motivation for their offending is to source money to purchase alcohol or illicit drugs if they can’t source them by other means.”
Senior Sergeant Principe said parents needed to take responsibility of their children, especially between 10pm to 4am when a majority of these crimes were happening.
“We need the community’s help with the fight against illicit drugs,” he said.
“This financial year we will continue to push a very hard line against illicit drug use.”
Senior Sergeant Principe said Busselton had seen reasonable reductions over the last year for offences like vandalism (down 22.1 percent), reported theft (down 15.9 percent), reported domestic violence (down 4.9 percent), reduction in disorderly conduct complaints (down 4.9 percent) and a 44.5 percent drop in assaults.
Senior Sergeant Principe made a special mention of the Street Chaplains who conduct foot patrols of the Busselton CBD every Friday and Saturday nights.
He said they played an important role in engaging community members who frequent the CBD and attend licensed premises to monitor community members who place themselves in vulnerable situations.
“The Street Chaplains need to take some credit for the big reduction in our assault and disorderly conduct rates,” Senior Sergeant Principe said.
Particular areas that didn’t see a decrease in crime included a 3.2 percent increase in burglaries and a 14.7 percent increase in car thefts.
“Most of our burglaries occur in sheds and garages and the majority of our vehicle thefts are mopeds, trailers and unlicensed motorcycles,” Senior Sergeant Principe said.
In total, 488 people were charged with criminal offences compared to 445 in the previous financial year.
Senior Sergeant Principe said police would continue to target Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and warned the community not to be fooled by them.
“They are members of criminal organisations that exploit the rest of society for the financial benefit of their members.”
