Crimes including domestic violence, break and enters and thefts of vehicles have dropped dramatically at Wellington over the past two years.
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The latest data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research have revealed that break and enters to dwellings have more than halved in the 12 months to March 2018, compared to the previous year.
They were down by 52.1 per cent, while thefts from dwellings were down 41 per cent and break and enters from non-dwellings were down 40 per cent.
Reports of domestic violence dropped 35.4 per cent while motor vehicle thefts were down by a third for the town.
Despite the drops, many categories remain two to three times higher than the state average, with thefts from dwellings still nine times higher, even with the good recent breakthrough. Domestic violence is also three and a half times the NSW rate.
All other major crime categories remained stable.
The figures were in line with significant drops across the entire Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) area.
Member for Dubbo Troy Grant said the results were a fantastic outcome for Wellington and the wider electorate. He paid tribute to the officers on the ground for the good result.
“The Orana-Mid Western Police District is doing exceptional work driving down crime throughout the region including Dubbo and Wellington,” Mr Grant said.
“I have the utmost confidence in our local men and women in blue and commend them for their outstanding and proactive work in keeping the community safe.”
Mr Grant, who is also the Minister for Police, said the change from local area commands to police districts and placement of specialised task forces in the area had played a role in the dramatic improvement.
“Thanks to the re-engineering of the NSW Police Force, police districts can now set their own agenda, targeting local and regional crime trends and hot spots, deploying officers where they are needed most, and are more agile and flexible in their policing approach.
“In October 2017 Dubbo also received the first Region Enforcement Squad in country NSW. This new specialist police team is tasked with combating mid-level crime in Western NSW and is making significant in-roads into property-related offences, domestic violence, mid-level drug supply and rural crime.”
Across the DRC, indecent assaults rose by 21 per cent but that wasn’t reflected in Wellington’s figures.
