State-wide trends
Crime across most of NSW has remained stable or fallen over the last two years. Seven offences have trended down over the last 24 months. The remaining ten offences were stable. The offences trending down were:
- break and enter – dwelling (down 2.9%)
- break and enter – non-dwelling (down 4.1%)
- motor vehicle theft (down 3.2%)
- steal from motor vehicle (down 2.8%)
- steal from dwelling (down 3.5%)
- steal from person (down 8.4%)
- malicious damage to property (down 3.6%)
Outside the major 17 categories there was a big growth in arrests for cocaine use/possession (up 33.6% ). Prohibited and regulated weapons offences also rose 11.8 per cent due to increases in offences related to firearm licensing and prohibited weapon possession.
Regional NSW
Despite the falls in crime just listed, some parts of Regional NSW exhibited upward trends in some categories of crime. The most noteworthy of these were big increases in:
- the Mid North Coast reported increases in robbery without a weapon (up 69.2%), steal from motor vehicle (up 24.2%) and fraud (up 40.9%);
- Coffs Harbour-Grafton saw rises in steal from motor vehicle (up 32.2%), steal from retail store (up 43.7%) and fraud (up 60.7%).
Law enforcement activity
Despite recorded crime incidents generally remaining stable or falling, the number of people proceeded against to court by police over the last 24 months rose by nearly 3,000 to 164,123. This is due to an increased number of prosecutions for drug and theft offences, intimidation and breaching AVOs.
The number of people to referred to a youth justice conference also increased by 43.8 per cent (from 584 in the 12 months to September 2017 to 840 in the 12 months to September 2018).
