Lane Cove Crime Stats and Trends

The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Reports (BOSCAR) produces a quarterly and annual report series examining trends in crime reported to or detected by the NSW Police Force. The data is extracted from the Computerised Operational Policing System of the NSW Police Force.

BOSCAR has released quarterly crime statistics for March 2022

The NSW state-wide stats for the quarter show that many high-volume crimes remained low in the first quarter of 2022 due to significant reductions in offending during the pandemic. Between January and March 2022, police recorded 24% fewer property offences than the same period two years ago (January to March 2020).

This reduction is largely driven by significant falls in break and enter –

• dwelling (down 27% Q1 2022 compared with Q1 2020)
• break and enter – non-dwelling (down 23%)
• steal from retail store (down 24%)
• steal from motor vehicle (down 21%)
• robbery is down a sizeable 32%.

Violent crime, by contrast, is generally now on-par with pre-pandemic levels. Between January and March 2022, the volume of domestic assault and sexual offences were equivalent to the same period two years ago (January to March 2020).

Jackie Fitzgerald, Executive Director at BOCSAR, said it was surprising that stealing offences were still so low in 2022, given behaviour patterns in the community had largely returned to normal. “A number of factors suspected to be keeping property crime low during the pandemic are no longer in play, such as mobility restrictions and access to government stimulus money. It seems likely that property crime will start to increase over the coming year but, fortunately, this is taking longer than expected.”

Despite some recent high-profile violent offences being reported in the media, recorded crime statistics show no increase in violent offences involving firearms or knives in the year to March 2022. The number of murders attempted murders, assaults and robberies involving knives or firearms were lower in the year to March 2022 than in almost any other year in the past two decades.

Lane Cove Crime Stats

Below are the Lane Cove Stats for March 2021/2022

Lane Cove	Offence
Lane Cove	Murder or Attempted murder	0
Lane Cove	Domestic violence-related assault	51
Lane Cove	Non-domestic violence-related assault	30
Lane Cove	Sexual assault	15
Lane Cove	Indecent assault, act of indecency and other sexual offences	10
Lane Cove	Robbery	1
Lane Cove	Break and enter dwelling	54
Lane Cove	Break and enter non-dwelling	11
Lane Cove	Motor vehicle theft	30
Lane Cove	Steal from motor vehicle	80
Lane Cove	Steal from retail store	31
Lane Cove	Other theft	101
Lane Cove	Malicious damage to property	73

 

A study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research released in 2019 has found that increasing police numbers can reduce crime, but not necessarily through the apprehension of more offenders.

The study found that a 1% increase in the size of the police force generated:

• a 0.8% reduction in theft;
• a 1.1% reduction in car theft;
• no convincing reductions in other crimes.

The study found no change in arrest rates following the increase in police numbers. This indicates that, in this case, police reduced theft and motor vehicle theft primarily through deterring offenders from committing crime rather than through incapacitation.

Report Crime

Lane Cove Residents need to report all incidents to police. By reporting incidents, this helps police monitor patterns and trends. Read more here as to how you can quickly report a police matter.