There were 625,426 criminal offences recorded in Victoria in the twelve months to March 2026 - a decrease of 1,524 or 0.2%.
The crime rate, which factors in population growth, decreased by 1.9% (8,690.8 offences per 100,000 people).
While this is the first time Victoria has recorded a decrease in crime in almost four years, ever so slight it is, crime remains far too high.
Despite today's decrease, overall crime has still increased by 26% over the past three years.
Victoria Police analysis suggests it will take some time before crime reduces to levels more traditionally seen in Victoria, with the cost of living, recidivism, organised crime and drugs remaining the main drivers, enabled through the increased use of technology.
Consistent with previous crime data releases, the top three contributors to overall crime are breaches of orders (86,227 +6%), theft from motor vehicles (80,786 offences -2%) and assaults (52,811 -0.1%).
Breaches of orders include the detection of breaches of bail and family violence contraventions, which continue to increase due to the proactive interventions by our hard-working police officers.
During this reporting period, Victoria Police arrested 26,808 people a combined 76,610 times - a record level of enforcement by hardworking officers.
This is particularly noteworthy given Victoria Police's ongoing resourcing challenges, which currently sees more than 1,500 vacancies statewide.
Offenders are being held accountable in record numbers and crime is starting to reduce in line with Victoria Police's focus on prioritising having more officers on the street than in the station.
This provides our officers with a greater opportunity to prevent and respond to crime.
Victoria Police's strong focus on reducing administrative burden for officers will soon see retired police rejoin Victoria Police as reservists, with 600 ex-members already expressing their interest and 380 submitting applications.
KEY CRIME THEMES
Child offending
- While there has been a 6% reduction in child offending, children remain heavily overrepresented in serious and violent crimes such as robberies (60%), carjackings (55%), home invasions (49%) and aggravated burglaries (48%).
- Victoria Police also continues to arrest children in large numbers, with 1,237 children arrested a combined 6,454 times.
- The most serious and violent of these offenders are targeted through Operation Alliance, which has led to 1,300 gang related arrests and 3,700 charges laid over the past year.
- A clear link also exists between organised crime and young offenders, with adult criminals frequently tasking underage children to carry out serious crimes such as burglaries, car thefts and arsons.
Serious and violent crimes
- A number of serious and violent crimes are plateauing or experiencing slight reductions.
- This includes armed robberies (-14.9%), carjackings (-5.7%), non-FV serious assault (-5.9%), and rape (-3.6%).
- Aggravated home burglaries have also steadily declined by 19.9%, however the reality is they still remain well above traditional levels for Victoria (23% increase over the past three years).
- Operation Trinity, which is Victoria Police's largest operation targeting home burglaries, continues to intercept suspect cars and patrol hotspots across Melbourne each night to prevent offending.
- When burglaries can't be prevented, swift enforcement occurs. Trinity has led to the arrest of 523 burglars a combined 1,098 times in the last year.
- We also continue to remove weapons from the streets, with more than 7,000 knives, machetes and illegal blades seized in 2026.
Car theft
- While car thefts have stabilised year-on-year (+1%), the overall number is far too high and is more than double what it was four years ago.
- 31,851 cars were stolen last year - the highest since 2001-02.
- Police continue to target the most prolific car thieves, through local investigative teams dedicated to disrupting this activity, right up to the Vehicle Crime Squad who investigate syndicates facilitating large scale car thefts.
- Traditionally Victoria Police recovers around 70% of all vehicles stolen.
- So far in 2026, more than 5,000 stolen cars have been recovered during Operation Trinity.
- The use of technology continues to be a large contributing factor in car thefts - as police intelligence suggests up to 40% of all cars continue to be stolen using key mimicking or cloning technology used to override car security systems.
- Since the start of 2025, police have seized more than 1,100 of these devices during search warrants where offenders were set to be charged for stealing vehicles or when suspicious cars were intercepted.
- Police urge owners of vehicles to look at a range of preventative measures to help deter thieves, including an on-board diagnostic port lock, parking your car off the street, and locking all doors and windows.
Quotes attributable to Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Bob Hill:
"While pleasing to see overall crime slightly decrease, the reality is that overall crime in Victoria still remains far higher than both police and the community would like.
"This is why we are absolutely committed to ensuring our highly trained officers are where they are needed most - in the community, patrolling the streets, deterring criminal behaviour and preventing crime.
"This approach is pivotal to achieving Victoria Police's goal of reducing serious and violent crime by 5% each year.
"The early indications are we're making some positive steps to achieve this with armed robberies, carjackings, and aggravated home burglaries all reducing.
"Our dedicated officers continue to work extremely hard around-the-clock to protect the community, with a record 210 offenders arrested every day.
