UNLAWFUL entry into homes in the Mount Isa Police District increased 59 per cent compared to last year’s statistics.
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Mount Isa Police District Superintendent Glen Pointing, who moved into the role as the district’s top cop in August – said that a dedicated property crime team was formed in early October.
The team focuses specifically on break and enter offences.
“That started in the beginning of October and just in that time they charged 11 offenders on about 55 charges,” Superintendent Pointing said last Friday while discussing the annual review on the district’s crime statistics.
The general crime remained the same in comparison to the previous year. There were 9688 crimes in the 2016-17 financial year.
“Members of the community should not be concerned we have a crime rate or anything," he said.
“These are societal issues we deal with from year to year.
“In particular we are always concerned with vulnerable people such as elderly people subject to break and enters, or any form of crime.
“If that happens we visit those people where we can to teach them how to reduce their chances of being victimised.”
Juvenile crime and domestic violence were the two main concerns for Mount Isa’s new superintendent.
There were six robberies in the annual statistics which reduced the percentage by 20.9 per cent. Unlawful use of motor vehicles decreased 29.2 per cent, and unlawful entry into shops decreased 14.1 per cent.
He described local break and enters, which increased 59 per cent, as “opportunistic in nature”.
“We see a lot of young people who are not going to school...all the young people who roam the streets at night and invariably some of those people left to their device are going to commit offences,” Superintendent Pointing said.
The Mount Isa police enforced a type of curfew program which targeted repeat offenders who were on bail and supposed to be in their homes by a certain time of night.
“We visit those people to make sure they are complying with those conditions.
“Other than that we work with a lot of referral agencies to divert people from these bad behaviours.”
The number of domestic violence applications increased 18 per cent. Police motivated 93 per cent of the applications, and the number of breaches to Domestic and Family Violence Protection Orders decreased from 952 in 2015/16 to 788 in 2016/17.
“Our overall response to the issue of Domestic and Family Violence has recently been enhanced the selection of Mount Isa as a trial area for a multi-agency high risk domestic violence team,” Superintendent Pointing said.
In March the team’s integration manager Nikki Row said the rise of applications did not necessarily mean an increase in domestic violence. It could mean increased reporting of the crime in the community.