Assaults, family violence incidents, general theft, motor vehicle theft and property damage all increased in the first six months of this year as Canberra climbed very cautiously out of COVID-enforced restrictions and the local criminal community became steadily more active.
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The latest ACT reported crime data revealed that reported assaults in the first six month of 2021, compared with the same period in 2020, increased by just 3.8 per cent, while motor vehicle theft over the same period rose by 18.4 per cent.
Family violence incidents reported across the territory increased 8.9 per cent, although there was a barely discernible rise in apprehensions.
Two homicides have been recorded in the first half of the year: the frenzied stabbing death in Page in late February and the more recent unsolved murder of Glenn Walewicz, who was shot point-blank in the chest with a rifle as he answered the door of his Phillip unit late at night on June 11.
Mr Walewicz's murderer remains at large more than three weeks on with line searches, forensics and comprehensive CCTV footage study yet to provide any strong leads in the case.
While the ACT's online police data does not completely align with the dates on which crimes occur, it is useful for revealing trends over time.
Canberra's motor vehicle theft numbers traditionally rise and fall with the release of prolific recidivist thieves from the Alexander Maconochie Centre, and the unusual 18.4 per cent rise must also be viewed in context with the 2021 social environment, compared with 2020.
For much of the second quarter of last year, Canberra was in COVID lockdown, businesses were shuttered and most people were working from home, which makes stealing their cars more difficult.
However, the same chain of logic also could be applied to burglaries and yet these have fallen by 11.4 per cent over the same comparable period.
For a large proportion of the late summer/early spring period in 2020, ACT bars and nightclubs were shut due to the lockdown and there was so little alcohol-related clean-up work for Canberra's inner-city "beats" patrols that officers were reassigned to other duties.
Such a small increase in assaults - just 3.8 per cent over six months - as the nightlife gradually returned this summer therefore reveals either a generally better-behaved clientele or fewer police in the hotspots to arrest those responsible.
Belconnen and the inner north district - the latter which includes the pub-intensive city area - were where the notable assault increases occurred but even these rises were relatively modest: Belconnen's assaults rose from 294 in the first half of 2020 to 327, while the inner north increase was even smaller, up from 315 to 331.
Tuggeranong and Canberra's inner south remain the two most likely districts in the ACT to have your car stolen. Tuggeranong suffered a spike in theft in the first six months of 2020 with an average of 22 cars stolen each month. There have been 30 fewer cars stolen this half-year in Tuggeranong, but 23 more across the inner south.
From a road policing perspective, the five road fatalities in the first half of this year, compared with three for the first six months of 2020, is particularly jarring.
Of note, too, is the recent observation by Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan that in a large proportion of these incidents there is the suspicion that many of the drivers involved were affected by illicit drugs, specifically methamphetamine.
On the deserted, lockdown-affected roads of 2020, those Canberra drivers who were still out and about were recording such high speeds that police convened special press conferences to highlight the issue.
Traffic infringement notices issued this year have plummeted by an astonishing 43 per cent. There were just 1685 speeding tickets issued this year, compared with 2806 for the same period in 2020.
However, road crashes resulting in injury - not fatalities - took a major leap in the first six months of this year, up by 36 per cent.
It's notable, too, that drink-driver numbers are virtually unchanged from one comparable period to the next: 406 for January to June this year, and 407 for the same period last year.
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