There's been a big drop in crimes against people and property reported to the police over the year of the epidemic.
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In the first three months of this year, there were 8249 such crimes across the ACT compared with 11,223 in the first three months of 2020.
The new figures do not show drugs crimes, for example, but only what the police call "person-to-person" crime like assault, vandalism, robbery and theft.
The drop is across the suburbs and across the types of crime, including burglary, sexual assault, robbery and vandalism. Traffic infringements also fell dramatically - down from 2780 in the first three months of 2020 to 1545 in the same period this year.
On the face of it, some of the reason for the fall is obvious - when more people became stuck at home after March last year, there was less opportunity for burglary or street robbery; fewer people out in the open may have meant less opportunity for assault.
But other crimes like sexual assault which often happen at home as well as in public have also fallen. The police define sexual assault as "physical contact, or intent of contact, of a sexual nature directed toward another person where that person does not give consent, gives consent as a result of intimidation or deception, or consent is proscribed".
"ACT Policing's latest quarterly crime statistics show the number of sexual assaults reported to police was the lowest reported for a quarter since 2018," the police said.
But they have been told by agencies helping victims that requests for protection and help have risen.
"There is anecdotal evidence from our service partners that there have been increases in requests for help and information relating to assaults and sexual assaults in recent weeks. These have not yet translated to increases in reports to police," the ACT's Deputy Chief Police Officer, Commander Michael Chew, said.
He said that the general drop in crime reports was "encouraging".
"We have long known that Canberra is one of the safest places in Australia to live and ACT Policing is committed to ensuring that remains the case," he said.
It is not clear why the fall in crime should have continued since the lockdowns ended.
The police said that the drop in traffic infringements may have been because officers were diverted from traffic policing to patrolling the ACT border to prevent people from coming in with COVID-19.
"This in part was due to Road Policing assisting with COVID-19 compliance at ACT's borders," the police said.
The fall in ACT crime figures has happened across the ACT and across the categories.
- Gunghalin recorded 104 assaults (acts intended to cause non-fatal injury) in the first three months of 2020, for example, compared with 92 this year.
- Belconnen saw 18 robberies in the first three months of 2020 compared with seven this year.
- Tuggeranong had 31 reported sexual assaults last year compared with 24 this year.
Criminologists have noticed falling crime figures across Australia as well as in the United States and Britain.
"Generally we have seen crime decline in Australia," criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy of Bond University told The Canberra Times.
"Since 2001 rates of the most common forms of crime had fallen between 40 and 80 percent and were lower than they'd been in decades.
"Australia is not the only country to have experienced this crime trend. Some of the reasons for this are changes in the drug market, cheaper consumer goods, improved policing methodology and better crime prevention. It has also been observed that Australia's aging population could be having an effect as older people commit less crime."
Some crimes do seem to have risen.
"Offences that could be committed in private settings or remotely, such as cybercrimes, rose dramatically during the pandemic," Dr Goldsworthy said.
In Queensland, for instance, computer fraud and drug offences jumped at the start of the pandemic.