RECENTLY released data from the Crime Statistics Agency showed family violence-related recorded offences rose in the year ending September 2018.
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The figures rose by 30 recorded offences, or 11 per cent, to 298.
Inspector Paul Bertoncello, of the Western police cluster said the rise was a sign that people were increasingly likely to report family violence to police.
“There were 22 more stalking and harassment charges, which are family violence charges. The other big rise was justice procedures - they are all family violence things,” he said.
“That’s indicative of our effort to really target recidivist family violence offenders and perpetrators. We see that as a positive thing.
“Every time someone breaches an intervention order we’re charging them with it.”
Inspector Bertoncello said Ararat had dropped from having the sixth highest rate of family violence per 100,000 in Victoria to 10th.
“It goes to show out of all the areas in Victoria we've still got a higher incidence of family violence,” he said.
Police members spoke at some White Ribbon Day events across the region.
The talks highlighted to Inspector Bertoncello the ongoing need for police focus on the issue and for ongoing public education.
“There was a woman there (at a talk) who realised her sister was a victim of family violence, because of what it constituted,” he said.
“She went home and talked her sister into going to the police. She (the sister) later went and we obtained an intervention order and the perpetrator was removed from the house.
“It goes to show people still don't understand.”
Meanwhile, drug related offences remained steady but numbers from 2017 and 2018 were both nearly double that of 2016 (71).
Inspector Bertoncello said the apparent jump in recorded offences again was indicative of police focus in the area.
“That was driven by our trafficking and cultivating target, and that’s very much targeted by the people doing the most harm,” he said.
“We still process people for possessing and using drugs of dependence, but we shifted our focus over the last 18 months in Ararat and Stawell.”
Other offence rates in the shire of Ararat remained steady compared to the previous year.
The total recorded offences was 1452.
For the same period in 2017 recorded offences totaled 1294.
Counts of theft (210), assault (195), and drug use (128) remained steady.
