South of the river most prone to burglary
21 April 2009
The RAC is calling for an overhaul of crime reduction strategies after a new study named Hilton as the worst suburb for burglary for the second consecutive year.
The study analysed the results of a full year of insurance data from Western Australia’s largest home insurer, RAC Insurance.
The study has revealed six of the top 10 suburbs for burglary are located south of the river, sparking a call from the RAC for more directed burglary reduction programmes in the area.
“The south east and south metropolitan police districts continue to be named as areas of high burglary,” RAC Head of Member Advocacy Matt Brown said.
“The State government needs to work with local government and the community to see what can be done to make our suburbs safer.
“It’s deeply concerning that Hilton has a burglary rate of 5.7 per cent; this is only 0.2 per cent lower than when the RAC ran the same investigation last year.”
Koondoola, in the north west metropolitan police district, was named as the second worst suburb for burglary; up from third in the 2008 list.
“The community really needs to take a fresh look at how we are trying to combat this problem,” Mr Brown said.
“The State Government has a role to play in that by either replacing or reinvigorating existing burglary reduction strategies and by accelerating the recruitment of the 700 additional police officers promised in the last election.
“Those additional police need to go straight to the frontline in both road safety and in providing a visible presence in our communities.
”Homeowners also need to play their part by becoming more security conscious.
“Too often opportunistic burglars gain access to homes through unlocked doors or windows, often while the homeowner is actually at home.
“Local governments should also look at funding programs to provide rebates to homeowners who upgrade the security of their homes.”
Mr Brown said he was concerned this year’s list of burglary hot spots was very similar to the one produced by the RAC in 2008.
“Seville Grove is the only suburb that has dropped out of the top 10 in the past year and even then it has only dropped to 12th,” he said.
“This shows there has been no marked improvement in the past 12 months to combat burglary in this State.”
According to the data, the regional suburbs most prone to burglary were Spalding, Withers and Carey Park.
Top 10 burglary suburbs: 1. Hilton
2. Koondoola
3. Stratton
4. Caversham
5. Kenwick
6. Brookdale
7. Balga
8. South Lake
9. Bentley
10. Beaconsfield.
Figures for RAC Burglary rates are based on exposed policies between 01/01/2007 and 31/12/2008. The data only includes suburbs that have more than 500 policies during that time.
Download the release