Ocean Grove’s crime rate fell in 2021, latest Crime Statistics Agency.
Property and deception offences in Ocean Grove fell from 218 to 177 while crimes against the person decreased from 98 to 77.
The overall crime rate fell by almost one-quarter from 401 to 322.
Bellarine Police Senior Sergeant Adrian Bickley said COVID played a role in the reduction of crime, but stressed that community engagement had increased since lockdowns ended.
“In regards to the figures that have been put forth, we recognise that there has been a global pandemic that has been in play for a couple of years now,” he said.
“That has had some impact to crime figures.
“We recognise we are coming out of the pandemic and with that we are now looking at better engagement with local communities and we’ll be linking in to our local communities even more so to identify what is impacting on individual communities on the Bellarine.
“It’s important that we engage with the local communities.”
The overall pattern on the Bellarine according to the statistics was that crime had decreased in most towns in 2021, although the overall number of offences increased in Barwon Heads from 108 to 131. Criminal damage and stealing from a motor vehicle was responsible for the elevated figures.
Point Lonsdale experienced a jump in offences from 16 to 38 while St Leonards had a marked decrease from 177 to 128 and Queenscliff fell from 65 to 39.
Senior Sergeant Bickley said the opening of the Portarlington Police Station took some of the workload off the Ocean Grove-based Bellarine station.
“The fact that we got Portarlington open in December 2020 has been great to ensure we have that coverage for the northern side of the peninsula,” he said.
“We can start meeting people again. The Bellarine has distinct communities with different needs. We need to make sure we have those engagement processes in place.
“We’ll be engaging in crime reviews and looking at ways to reduce that crime as best we can. We are trying to be more visible.”
