Just what is the most common crime committed in the Central Coast area? According to recent crime stats, Transport Regulatory Offences appear to be the most common crimes recorded. This includes traffic offences, unpaid rego and driving an unroadworthy vehicle.
Transport Regulatory Offences have been the most common crime for many years now. However, as this report from Riviere Law discusses, there has been a significant drop in these types of offences in recent years – only 3699 transport regulatory offences were recorded in 2021 compared to the 7157 transport regulatory offences recorded in 2017.
In fact, many other crimes across the Central Coast area have seen sharp drops in frequency. Others meanwhile have seen a significant increase. This post delves more into these trends, and how they compare to trends across NSW as a whole.
Central Coast Crime Statistics 2021
Transport Regulatory Offences are not the only crimes in the Central Coast area to see a sharp decrease in recent years. Stats show a -14.2% decrease in the amount of Breaking and Entering offences of dwellings. The reduction in these crimes is most likely down to lockdown restrictions during Covid-19. However, it’s worth noting that the reduction of these crimes across the Central Coast has been even sharper than the -10.5% decrease across the entire state of NSW.
Motor Vehicle Theft incidents have also seen a -14% decrease across the Central Coast region in the last five years, which is almost three times the -5.6% average decrease reported in NSW. Meanwhile, despite alcohol-related harm continuing to be a major problem, there does seem to be an encouraging -18.2% decrease in Liquor Offences across the Central Coast region (which is over double the -7% decrease reported across NSW).
Sexual Assault and Drug Offences are crimes that have increased over the last five years in the Central Coast. There has also been a 50.9% increase in Other Offences – which mainly includes Covid-19 restrictions being broken. These pretty much align with trends seen across NSW.
Lake Macquarie Crime Statistics 2021
The decrease in Transport Regulatory Offences has been even sharper in Lake Macquarie over the last five years – almost double the decrease reported across NSW. A similar decrease in Breaking and Entering offences was also reported, although not quite as sharp as the decrease in the Central Coast area.
Similar increases in Sexual Assault and Drug Offences have been reported in Lake Macquarie over the last two years. An increase in Other Offences was also found, which is similarly made up of mostly Covid-19 restriction breaches.
Conclusion
While Transport Regulatory Offences remain the most common crime in The Central Coast, there has been a sharp decrease in these crimes since 2017. This aligns with decreases in crime reported across NSW, although some crimes such as Breaking and Entering, Motor Vehicle Theft and Liquor Offences have seen even greater decreases than the NSW average.
Of course, much of this is likely due to lockdown restrictions over the last two years, and these offences will likely increase in frequency over the next few years. It will be interesting to see just how much they increase by and whether the pandemic has had any lasting effect on criminal behaviour.
