Burglar Beware under funded

15 May 2008

While the State Government’s roll-out of Burglar Beware into the south metropolitan area, Geraldton (in full) and South Hedland is a welcome move, more still needs to be done to curb the state’s crime rate, according to Western Australia’s leading membership organisation, the RAC.

In handing down its budget last week, the State Government committed $1.24million over four years to the program, but the RAC’s Executive Manager of Member Advocacy David Moir said this wasn’t enough.

“This funding is welcome but it’s a far cry from the $1million per annum needed to properly expand Burglar Beware into the south metropolitan area, Geraldton, Bunbury and Kalgoorlie,” Mr Moir said.

“It is important that the government shows a stronger commitment to burglary reduction.”

Geraldton suburbs of Rangeway and Spalding topped the list in the RAC’s 2006 burglary report, but since the introduction of Burglar Beware both suburbs are now recording a much lower burglary rate.

“The introduction of Burglar Beware into Geraldton seems to have been a success with our statistics showing burglary rates in these suburbs have reduced,” Mr Moir said. “But the proof will be if this decrease is sustainable over the medium to long-term”.

Mr Moir said the program’s expansion to south metro is particularly important because figures released from RAC Insurance revealed that, of the thirty suburbs with the highest burglary rate, twenty-two were from the south east and south metropolitan areas.*

The report also identified the south metropolitan suburb of Hilton as the State’s number one burglary hotspot.

Download the release (pdf)