PROACTIVE policing, police intelligence and targeted strike forces are being given the credit for the fact new statistics reveal major crime categories are either stable or falling in Bathurst.
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Acting Superintendent for Chifley Police District, Bruce Grassick, said the latest Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) figures are "encouraging".
Break and enters fell by almost 50 per cent in the 12 months leading up to March 2021 compared with the previous year.
Motor vehicle theft also fell significantly, as did retail theft.
Steal from dwelling, fraud and robbery without a weapon stats were also down, while domestic violence and sexual assaults remained stable.
IN OTHER NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
Acting Superintendent Grassick said domestic violence, which recorded 253 incidents in the 12 months leading up to March 2021 compared with 247 the year prior, is a strong focus for police.
He said his DV (domestic violence) teams provide support and referrals to ensure "the people needing help come to us".
Acting Supt Grassick said he saw it as a positive that people were coming forward and reporting violence.
"Police are very proactive when it comes to addressing DV," he said.
"We are regularly doing compliance checks on perpetrators and checking in with victims."
Likewise, he said officers are doing a lot of work in victim support, which he said helps encourage victims to come forward.
n the most recent stats, 75 incidents of sexual assault were reported to police compared with 63 for the 12 months prior.
"We have really positive relationships between services and a dedicated team of criminal investigators looking into sexual assaults. They are the best of the best, and the investigations are given the highest priority," he said.
When it comes to property crime, Supt Grassick said police were very pleased with the results: break and enters fell from 315 in the 12 months leading up to March 2020 to 157 the following year.
"This is a really positive result. These figures are down considerably, even with the pandemic; we were really only in strict lockdown for a couple of months," he said.
He said police did a lot of work on proactive and preventative based policing using intelligence, patrolling of hot spots and legislative tools to target known property offenders.
He said major drug operations have also had a flow-on effect in reducing property crime.
