“We need to find them and we need to protect those children. The online stuff is quite significant,” Mr Nugent said.
Mr Nugent said youth crime was also of real concern to police and while gang-related street robberies were down due to lockdown measures,police were working to stem the flow heading into the busy summer period.
The data,released by the Crime Statistics Agency,showed 53.4 per cent of robberies were committed by young people aged 10 to 17,which Mr Nugent said was “quite significant”,prompting a statewide crackdown on youth gangs during the past three months with 348 arrests made.
The pandemic’s lockdown measures had provided police with a unique opportunity to make inroads in a number of key crime areas,he said,including gang activity and the breaching of orders with stay-at-home measures making it easier to track down some criminals.
Police also experienced a spike in the number of reports of suspicious activity from neighbours who were home and observing drug cultivation,trafficking and manufacturing in the communities.
“Every day of the week,we see the harm caused by drugs in the community. We see the burglaries,we see the violence,we see the overdoses,we see the road trauma. The drug market is also becoming more complex and more harmful ... we see the use of the dark net and other methods ... to profit on the misery of others,” Mr Nugent said.
“There were a range of opportunities that came out of COVID. With less people out on the road,it made it easier for us to identify the criminals.
“The calls to our Police Advice Line and also to triple zero were quite significant.”
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The overall offence rate was 8227 crimes per 100,000 people,an increase of 2.7 per cent compared with the 12 months to September 2019.
A total of 551,710 offences were recorded during the 12-month period,with the number of crimes recorded increasing by 23,229 (or 4.4 per cent).
Lockdown breaches were the fifth most common crime recorded statewide,making up almost 6 per cent of all offences over the past 12 months.
Other common crimes included stealing from a motor vehicle (56,849 offences),breaching a family violence order (50,462),other theft (46,209) and criminal damage (35,966).
Family violence-related crimes increased by 7.5 per cent with more than 90,000 offences recorded.
The Crime Statistics Agency said the data also showed “significant upward trends” in crimes including drug offences,up 19 per cent,and the breaching of court orders,up 5.4 per cent,which includes breaches of intervention orders and bail conditions.
It comes just weeks after Mernda woman Celeste Manno,23,was allegedly murdered in her home by a man who wassubject to an interim intervention order.
The highest number of crimes recorded were in the local government areas of Melbourne,Latrobe,Yarra,Greater Shepparton and Horsham. And while three of the top five actually recorded small declines in the number of offences committed in their neighbourhoods,Yarra’s crime rate per 100,000 residents rose 5.1 per cent and Horsham’s surged 23.2 per cent.
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The agency said the largest decreases were in areas including arson and disorderly or offensive conduct,with the state in lockdown during half the 12-month period.
There were also drops in the number of thefts from shops,thefts from cars and residential non-aggravated burglaries.
Mr Nugent said heading into the busy summer period,police would now turn their focus to the roads as thousands of Victorians prepare to head away over Christmas and the new year.
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