Residential break-ins have continued to decrease significantly in South Australia, the latest crime statistics have revealed.
The February rolling year statistics reveal an eight per cent decrease in residential break-ins - or 479 reported incidents – with other offence categories including robbery and theft also recording further encouraging declines.
While the overall number of assaults reported in the period increased by just one per cent – or 131 incidents – the number of reported incidents in which a police officer was assaulted rose by 19 per cent – or 117 incidents – from 615 to 732.
Acting Assistant Commissioner (Metropolitan Operations Service) David O'Donovan said while the decreasing number of residential break-ins was encouraging, homeowners still needed to remain vigilant about the security of their property.
"The proactive measures we are taking that include targeting recidivist offenders are continuing to have an impact in reducing the number of residential and non-residential break-ins,'' he said.
"But there are too many incidents in which homeowners have been making it easier for thieves by leaving their premises unsecured, either by not locking doors or securing windows adequately.
"The same attention should be paid to vehicles, especially if they are parked on the street. Simple actions such as not leaving valuable items in visible locations in a vehicle will considerably reduce the risk of having it broken into.''
The rolling year figures reveal the number of residential break-ins declined from 5,959 to 5,480 reported incidents. The number of non-residential break-ins decreased by 95 incidents – from 3,488 to 3,393. The continuing decline can be attributed to the ongoing targeting of recidivist offenders.
While there was an overall decrease in theft of five per cent – from 55,759 to 53,036 reported incidents – within that category motor vehicle theft and related offences increased by two per cent – from 14,482 to 14,795 reported incidents.
Theft from retail premises has continued to decline with a 10 per cent fall in the number of incidents reported – from 24,038 to 21,625 – while the number of reports for receiving or handling the proceeds of crime increased by 47 per cent from 2,243 to 3,287 incidents.
In the homicide category the number of murders decreased by nine per cent from 11 to 10 reported incidents. Attempted murder increased by five per cent from 20 to 21 reported incidents. Manslaughter or driving causing death incidents increased by 21 per cent from 19 to 23 reported incidents.
On 1 July SAPOL updated crime recording and reporting systems to align with a new crime coding change required by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This has resulted in changes to the look of the published crime tables that include Person and Property offences and the display of other offences categories to ensure a nationally consistent approach to reporting crime. However, ABS counting rules have not changed.
