Burglary rates still too high
28 April 2008
The State Government should inject an extra $1million into burglary reduction strategies in next month’s State Budget, WA’s leading membership organisation, the RAC has said.
The RAC’s Executive Manager of Member Advocacy David Moir said Burglar Beware had proved successful in tackling burglary in the past, but a lack of funding and resources to implement the program more widely meant WA retained the unenviable title of Australia’s burglary capital.
“There has been no improvement in burglary since 2005 and we still have the worst burglary record of all States.
“Burglar Beware has quite rightly been largely focused around the south east metropolitan suburbs, which account for nearly a third of all burglaries in the metropolitan area,” Mr Moir said.
“But it is important that the government shows a stronger commitment to burglary reduction”.
The RAC understands that the State Government is currently undertaking a review of the Burglar Beware program and Mr Moir urged police minister John Kobelke to act on the results as a matter of urgency.
He said burglary remained a major issue for RAC members with two thirds claiming it was important and required urgent attention according to a recent RAC survey.
Only 13 per cent of those respondents said that they thought burglary had improved in the past year.
“For the past few years, we have been calling for the Government’s burglary reduction programme to be expanded into the south metropolitan area as well as Bunbury, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie.”
“Burglary is a burning issue with our members and it warrants more funding and a better coordinated approach” Mr Moir said.
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.*
These statistics were supported by police data which recorded 52 per cent of all burglaries taking place south of the river between January 2006 and December 2007.
Mr Moir said the burglary hot spot list was based on the number of RAC Insurance policies held in each suburb against the numbers of claims for burglary.
“The results identify where the burglary hot spots are. These can be smaller communities where burglary is a problem, not necessarily highly populated suburbs with high numbers of burglaries.”
Hilton, third in the RAC’s last burglary report in October 2006, topped the burglary hot spot list with the suburb of Seville Grove also recording a rate of more than one burglary in every 20 homes – a rate that Mr Moir said was unacceptable.
“I don’t think a rate of one house burgled in every 20 is acceptable and steps need to be taken to curb this rate.”
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