The Crime Statistics Agency released its latest crime statistics for the 12 months ending on June 30, 2021, with an average of five offences every day across the municipality.

For the past 12 months, there were 1972 offences up from 1392 in the previous year.

Acting Superintendent Karl Curran for Western Division 4 said the crime in the region "remains steady."

IN OTHER NEWS:

He said it was disappointing to see breaches of family violence orders.

"Some of the lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions have impacted people not only financially but also with not having the ability to move around which has caused tension in relationships," he said.

"We are concerned about that."

He noted that some breaches will be electronic and not in person but are still worrisome.

"We still experience a lot of family violence in our communities," Acting Superintendent Curran said.

He said before lockdown, police were proactive with contacting repeat victims to make them as safe as possible.

Acting Superintendent Curran said the one critical piece of advice is to lock their vehicles and homes.

"A thing of concern is the number of vehicles and houses that have been broken in to that have been unlocked," he said.

"Police can't be on every corner; we want to work with the community to avoid crimes occurring and one of those simple steps is to lock your vehicles, don't leave valuables inside your car, don't leave keys out in plain site in an unlocked house."

PREVIOUS STATS: Latest crime statistics show a jump in crime for the Ararat region

The most common offences recorded for the Ararat area were other justice procedure offences (232) and family violence order breaches (205).

Other justice procedure offences can include resisting or hindering an officer, failing to appear or escaping custody.

The other most prevalent offences were sexual offences (174), criminal damage (157) and other theft (113).

Most of the crimes occurred in a house, with 893 offences recorded.

All but approximately 200 of the 1927 offences occurred in Ararat (1727).

The second most dominant location was Dobie, with 105 offences.

There were some decreases in the 2021 data.

There was a decrease in offences in Moyston and Willaura. In 2020 there were 26 offences in Moyston, which dropped to 18, and in 2020 there were 13 offences in Willaura, down to 12 in 2021.

Other theft dropped from 158 to 113, and offences on a street/lane/footpath dropped from 255 to 234.

Nonetheless, this is still the second most common location type for offences recorded.

Acting Superintendent Curran said the Ararat police have been active in working with the community.

"We've done proactive work over the last 12 months," he said.

"There have been some good initiatives with Ararat Rural City Council to address community concerns."

Ararat police also worked with the community to work on livestock theft concerns.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Ararat Advertiser, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ararat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.