The crime rate for most major offences in the region still remains two to three times the state rate.
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The latest Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) detailed crime statistics and trends for the last two years leading up to September 2018.
BOCSAR director Dr Don Weatherburn said there was no significant change in any of the major categories of crime but there were still significant problems in Dubbo as most of the categories were still two to three times the state rate.
“To give one illustration, break and enters in Dubbo were 3.6 times the state rate per head of population,” Dr Weatherburn said.
The data placed Dubbo fifth in the state for break and enters.
He said most of regional NSW, particularly in the north west, had a bundle of problems that contributed to crime.
“First of all high unemployment, that’s going to cause any amount of trouble, drugs [such as] methamphetamine has been a major problem,” Dr Weatherburn said.
He said regional areas, especially Broken Hill, Coonamble, Dubbo and Narromine had high rates of offending.
“So the big job ahead is to get them down,” Dr Weatherburn said.
Recorded incidents in the Dubbo LGA in the year to September 2018 included 481 cases domestic assaults, 436 non-domestic assaults, 77 sexual assaults and 116 indecent assaults.
For incidence of stealing, property offences there were seven robberies with a weapon, 18 robberies without a weapon, 655 break and enter dwellings and 218 break and enters of non-dwellings.
There were 220 cars stolen, 690 stealing from motor vehicles, 292 thefts from retail businesses, 264 stealing from dwellings and 39 thefts from persons.
There were 403 cases of fraud and 1886 incidents of malicious damage to property.
“Over the longer term, Dubbo has become a safer place,” Dr Weatherburn said.
In the 12 months to September 2018, there were about 50 burglaries a month compared with 100 a month in 2001.
There has been a reduction in non-domestic assault with about 40 per month in 2008 and about 30 per month now.
“You get a very different picture in Dubbo depending on whether you look at the last two years or the last 10 years,” he said.
