Crime statistics in Young have fallen or remained stable over the last two years with stealing from a retail store the only major non-drug- related offence to have increased in number.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Steal from retail incidents have jumped by 7.9 percent but steal from a motor vehicle (-15.9 percent) and steal from a dwelling (-10.9 percent) numbers are down according to NSW Bureau of Crime statistics.
Cootamundra LAC Superintendent Christopher Schilt said the figures show Young is a safe community that has a proactive police force.
"The increase in ‘steal from retail’ incidents reflects local police being proactive in our retail operations," he said.
"Often retailers have not reported a theft to us because they are not sure if any good can come of it or if the offender will be caught.
"The rise in figures might not reflect more retail thefts occurring but rather both the impact of police being proactive and store owners and staff being more vigilant with their reporting."
There were 56 domestic related violence incidents reported in 2016 down from a high of 82 incidents reported in Young in 2013.
But Superintendent Christopher Schilt said those numbers gave police no comfort.
"One domestic violence incident is one too many in our book so whilst those figures are somewhat stable it is still a problem that we are trying to tackle," he said.
"Any violence related incident is a worry for the community, but the fact that non-domestic related violence incidents are down from a high of 97 in 2012 to 68 in 2016 reflects the work that has been done on alcohol-related crime by police in partnership with the town's licensed premises and it also means the public are generally behaving better.
"We’ve established positive relationships with people to ensure that crimes are being reported and matters are being followed up with arrests made.
"Overall, I think that we live in a safe community which is indicated by the falling crime figures. Whilst ever there are crimes occurring, we have a job to do and police will continue to target areas of concern."