MARCH 21, 2018 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
The pain of stolen glory
(Damjan Janevski)
The story of a western suburbs boxer has been immortalised in a new film. Stolen Glory: The Tale of Porky Brooke tells the story of Graeme “Porky” Brooke – the first cousin of boxing great Lionel Rose – and how a promising career ended with a brain scan. ■ Full story: Page 12
Crime takes a downturn Police are praising community efforts to help stamp out crime as rates in the inner-west hit their lowest levels for a decade following a dramatic plunge in recorded offences. Crime data for 2017, released last week, shows crime plummeted almost 15 per cent in Maribyrnong and nearly nine per cent in Hobsons Bay in the 12 months to December. Maribyrnong’s crime rate fell by 14.7 per cent, one of the largest drops in history, as recorded offences dropped from 9135 in 2016 to 8019 in 2017. The result outpaced the overall statewide decrease in the offence rate of 9.9 per cent.
The plunge was spearheaded by a 12.3 per cent drop in theft offences, down by 486, and a 33.3 per cent reduction in drug use and possession offences from 2016. Hobsons Bay’s crime rate was down 8.9 per cent as the total number of recorded offences fell from 6706 to 6079. Footscray Inspector Adrian Healy said police had been targetting high-volume crime such as burglaries and theft from cars. “We have been doing a lot of pro-active work around those areas, but also making inroads through enforcement operations,” he said. Inspector Healy said the increasing popularity of the centre of Footscray and Maribyrnong council’s CCTV network were
infocus T U R N T O
which we can see reflected in these latest statistics,” she said. Victoria Police Commander Stuart Bateson told a Monash University forum at the Immigration Museum on Monday that political “tough on crime” rhetoric, in the face of dwindling crime rates, could make policing more difficult. Assistant Commissioner Andrew Crisp told the forum fear of crime in the western suburbs and Victoria was out of step with reality. “With recent statistics showing crime is down, people are questioning how accurate these numbers are,” he said. “Yet nobody said we were lying when the numbers were going up.”
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helping drive crime and drug use out of the area. “As an area gets busier, we talk about activation, driving out anti-social behaviour,” he said. He said the message was getting through to some people, but others could still be taking greater efforts to avoid becoming victims of opportunistic crime by not leaving bags in chairs in a cafe or valuable items in plain sight in vehicles. Footscray MP Marsha Thomson said the statistics were encouraging, but more needed to be done. “Our local police members across Maribyrnong are working hard to target issues including theft and drug use and possession,
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