The latest quarterly crime figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveal that residential break and enter offences have increased by 49.8 per cent in the Moree Plains Local Government Area (LGA) in the past 24 months up to March 2017.

This is in contrast to the NSW average which shows that in the 24 months to March 2017, break and enter dwelling offences were trending down with a decrease of 5.9 per cent.

A total of 355 break and enter dwelling offences were recorded in the 12 months to March this year, up from 237 the previous year.

The number of break and enter non-dwellings has also seen an increase with a total of 159 offences recorded up to March 2017 compared to 140 the year before.

Barwon LAC Commander Superintendent Paul McDonald said the increase in break and enters could be related to a spike over the Christmas period which saw offenders target premises for motorbikes and quad bikes.

“Particularly rural places that may not be as well secured or frequented such as sheds that people store motorbikes in,” he said.

“A lot of it we believe can be related to certain groups of people coming in to Moree and committing these offences.

“In the last month we did manage to arrest and charge quite a few people who we believe were responsible for break and enters to both dwellings and non-dwellings.”

The rate of non-dwelling break and enters is 7.5 times that of the NSW rate of recorded incidents per 100,000 population over the 12 months to March 2017, while residential break and enters is also well above the NSW average being 6.6 times higher.

Supt. McDonald said although these figures are high, the incidences of break and enters has reduced over the past few months which could be attributed to greater community involvement such as the establishment of the Moree Mobile Neighbourhood Watch Group, as well as targeted police operations.

“It has a lot do to with the community getting together and saying they’ve had enough,” he said.

“Police are working with the men’s group but are also out there proactively targeting these offenders. We’ve ran a number of operations in the past month and brought in extra resources which has proved fairly successful in targeting these people.”

There has also been a significant increase in malicious damage to property over the past 12 months, with 606 incidents compared to 465 in the 12 months to March 2016.

Malicious damage to property is also 5.3 times the state average.

Supt. McDonald said malicious damage to property can cover a range of things, including damage to cars or trucks from rock-throwing on the bypass.

“Rock-throwing peaked a bit late last year,” he said.

Overall, crime in the Moree Plains LGA is significantly higher than the NSW rate for all but three of the 17 major crime categories, with the number of incidences for the majority of offences seeing an increase over the past 12 months.

Supt. McDonald said police hope to see these figures drop.

He believes much of the increase could be attributed to a small group of people who are committing crimes that overlap into multiple categories.

“It’s cyclical; in a small community when the offences spike it tends to be when police notice certain people – new people or people who haven’t been in the area for a while – are back in town,” he said.

“If you look at some of those categories, a lot tends to be related, for example break and enters and stealing can flow into frauds where people are stealing credit cards.

“Also stealing motor vehicles, some of them are now theft-proof unless you have a key, so crooks could break into homes specifically to steal a car. 

“We know that these people don’t specifically concentrate on one crime.”

Despite the increase over the past 12 months, the number of crime incidences in the Moree LGA have generally remained stable in the 24 months to March 2017 for all but the break and enter dwelling category.

Supt. McDonald said police continue to do all they can to ensure these crime statistics go down.

“We’re doing a range of things from gathering information on suspects or targets in the area to doing targeted operations on wanted offenders, more proactive patrols, particularly at peak times, and bringing in extra resources,” he said.

The community can also play a significant role in crime prevention.

“The community have been good, a lot of people have been talking to us and reporting crime and suspicious activity,” Supt. McDonald said.

“We ask that that continues and that people are aware of security around yourselves, your property, your vehicles and your friends and neighbours.

“These criminals are generally opportunistic – if there;s a window or door open or unsecure property, that’s more inviting to them than something that’s more secure.”