Chelsea • Mordialloc • Mentone
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Wednesday 5 July 2023
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Fire fought at chicken shop A CHARCOAL Chicken shop in Chelsea was damaged by a fire last week. Emergency services were called to the Nepean Highway restaurant a little after 10am on 29 June. They were able to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters from Edithvale, Springvale, and Patterson River attended. SES members also arrived on the scene to help. Picture: Chelsea SES
Family violence continues to rise Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au THE crime rate in the Kingston local government area is skyrocketing. New figures from the Crime Statistics Agency show that criminal incidents in the Kingston LGA rose by more than 17 percent when comparing 2022/2023 to 2021/2022. The figures were measured between March 2022 and March 2023. There were 8005 criminal incidents in Kingston in that time period, up from just
under 6800 from the same timeframe the year prior. Family violence incidents are also on the rise in the Kingston municipality. The number of recorded family violence incidents rose by 6.8 per cent in the year ending March 2023, from 1767 to 1888. That figure has grown each year since 2019. In neighbouring Frankston, family violence incidents have decreased. Women were the victims of family violence incidents in Kingston 1423 times in 2022/2023. Men were the victims 464 times. Theft from cars is the most common
offence committed in the Kingston LGA - it was recorded 1127 times. Cheltenham is the local suburb most affected by crime. On 30 June, the police eyewatch Facebook page put out a statement confirming that police would dedicate more resources to stopping car thefts. “Victoria Police has a dedicated citywide operation in place targeting aggravated burglaries and associated car thefts,” the statement read. “Local police across the Melbourne area, supported by specialist units, including Air Wing, Dog Squad, and Public Or-
der Response Team, are teaming up to help prevent aggravated burglaries and track offenders. “The bolstered nightly police response has led to 813 arrests in the three months to 19 June, including 216 in relation to burglaries and car thefts, with the remainder of arrests relating to drug and other miscellaneous offending.” CSA chief statistician Fiona Dowsley said that the latest statewide crime figures show that offences are close to prepandemic levels. “The upward trends observed in recorded crime measures in the last 12 months coincide with a
return to pre-pandemic related movements in the community. The volume increase in recorded offences is largely attributable to non-family violence related crime,” she said. “While there has been an increase in recorded crime measures for the year ending 31 March 2023 the figures remain below those recorded in 2019.” Statewide in the year ending March 2023, the number of criminal incidents increased by 5.6 per cent. To view the full statewide statistics visit crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/crimestatistics/latest-crime-data-by-area