Albany crime statistics 2021-22: CBD stealing lowest in nine years of records but violence troublingly high

Stealing offences in Albany’s CBD have almost halved in the past nine years, but violence remains high. The Advertiser has crunched the numbers on crime in all 61 suburbs of the City of Albany after WA Police this month published its annual statistics for the 2021-22 financial year. The statistics cover 18 selected offence categories and can be broken down by suburb, dating back to 2013-14. Figures for the suburb of Albany — which includes the CBD and entertainment precinct — show a steady decline in stealing, from 303 in 2013-14 to 157 in 2021-22. Fraud offences dropped sharply in 2021-22, falling from 114 the previous financial year to 48. Great Southern Police District Acting Superintendent Glenn Spencer said local police and detectives ran several operations throughout the year during peak offending periods, usually coinciding with school holidays. “We sourced an additional $50,000 in funding from Government under Operation Heatshield,” he said. “That funding was used to provide a combination of high-visibility and plainclothes police foot and vehicular patrols, targeting either repeat locations, vulnerable victims or recidivist theft offenders. “For the period from December to May, Operational Heatshield in Albany resulted in six summons being issued, 20 arrests being made, for a total of 81 charges ranging from burglary, stealing, through to damage or trespass. “We worked with retailers to identify several groups of repeat theft offenders who were issued with barring notices, preventing them from returning to stores they had been caught stealing from, or if they do return, they face being charged with trespassing.” However, the numbers were not all rosy in the CBD, with arson (10 offences), robbery (4) and graffiti (14) all reaching their highest points in the nine years of records. Threatening and violent offences were also near their peak, second only to 2020-21. There were 57 non-family assaults and 11 instances of non-family threatening behaviour reported in the CBD in the past financial year, after peaks of 70 and 6 in the previous 12 months. Acting Supt Spencer said more police officers meant more police interactions. “This can seemingly result in an increase in crime, such as threatening behaviour,” he said. “In reality it is police being present when disorderly behaviour is happening and intervening.” He said police were continuing to work with the City of Albany to upgrade lighting and CCTV which was fed live to the police station. “We are not the fun police, we want people to get out and enjoy themselves, but we want to ensure Albany remains a safe place,” he said.