Victoria Police statement in relation to Crime Statistics Agency data release

There were 640,860 criminal offences recorded in Victoria in the 12 months to the end of September 2025 – an increase of 62,671 offences or 10.8%.

The crime rate, which factors in population growth, rose by 9% (9030.2 offences per 100,000 people).

Sadly, there were 235,425 different people who became victims of crime during this period - an increase of 10.7%.

To put this into perspective, just over 3% of the Victorian population were directly impacted by crime.

Victoria Police has been highly successful holding those committing harm accountable, with 77,911 arrests in this time – 213 per day.

While timely arrests will always be key to keeping the community safe, Victoria Police now has an enhanced operating model with a greater emphasis on preventing crime.

Significant initiatives are already underway to redirect more police resources to the frontline where officers can prevent and deter crime.

In early 2026, recruitment will commence for 200 police reservists. This is the first step towards getting police officers off reception counters, freed up from paperwork duties and most importantly out in the community preventing crime.

In addition, the State Command and Coordination Centre has now commenced testing at the Victoria Police Centre. When fully operational, the 24/7 centre will serve as a central deployment hub– strategically guiding frontline and specialist police resources to prevent offending and bring an abrupt end to crime sprees across the state.

REASONS FOR CRIME INCREASE

• Repeat offenders remain the most significant contributor to Victoria’s crime rate. This is illustrated by the fact intelligence shows 6,600 chronic offenders committed 10 or more offences in this period. Collectively, they were responsible for more than half of all solved offences and around a quarter of total crime in Victoria.
• Theft-related crimes continue to account for four of the top five fastest growing crimes. This includes theft from motor vehicle (86,600, up 18,577 offences or 27.3%), theft of motor vehicle (33,212, up 7,450 offences or 28.9%), retail theft (41,789, up 5,608 offences or 15.5%), and theft other (57,445, up 3,888 or 7.3%).
• Technology-enabled offending remains problematic across key crime themes. Car theft has reached its highest levels since 2002, with intelligence showing as many as one in four cars are now stolen using key programming/mimicking technology. While these devices are not illegal to own, Victoria Police has seized 300 in the last four months alone.
• Family violence order breaches (63,664, up 4,833 or 8.2%) are the fourth fastest growing crime. Police intelligence shows most of these breaches relate to offenders using mobile phones and social media to target victims, particularly ex-partners.

KEY CRIME THEMES

Child offending

• Child offenders (aged 12-17) remain a key issue, due to repeat offending and a significant overrepresentation in serious offending.
• During this reporting period, Victoria Police arrested 1,176 children a combined 7,075 times.

• Recorded offences involving children accounted for 60% of carjackings, 54% of home invasions, 49.3% of aggravated burglaries and 62.2% of robberies.
• Victoria Police is highly successful arresting serious and violent young offenders through key operations such as Alliance and Trinity. In the past year, these two operations have led to 3,100 arrests of youth gang members, underage burglars and young car thieves.
• While Victoria Police continues to hold offenders to account, we are committed to doing more with our partner agencies to divert young people from the criminal justice system.

Home burglaries

• Aggravated home burglaries remain a major concern for the community and police, with 7,892 recorded in this reporting period (up 973 offences or 14.1%).
• While there have been some confrontational aggravated burglaries in recent months, police intelligence continues to show almost all aggravated burglaries have no physical violence.
• Operation Trinity, which targets burglaries and car theft across Melbourne each night, has arrested 627 burglars and car thieves a combined 1,550 times in the past year.
• While arrests remain high, the primary aim of Operation Trinity is to prevent people having their homes broken into.
• Trinity units conduct a range of disruption activities each night, including saturating suburbs based on intelligence, intercepting thousands of vehicles each month and nightly patrols around the homes of prolific burglars and youth gang members.

Knife crime

• While today’s data release contains no new figures on knife crime, the Crime Statistics Agency released data last month showing incidents involving machetes tripled between 2021 and 2024 (610 to 2,061), with young males responsible for two in five of these incidents.
• Victoria Police continues to target anyone carrying a knife, seizing more than 16,000 edged weapons this year – 47 per day.
• This has easily exceeded the previous record of 14,808 which occurred last year.
• Victoria Police is on track to seize 50% more knives this year than a decade ago.
• We are also taking weapons off the streets as part of a six-month search declaration in Melbourne’s CBD, coupled with increased police patrols.

Retail theft

• Retail theft remains at record levels, with aggression towards retail staff and other antisocial behaviour at shopping centres an issue.
• As part of Operation Pulse, police and PSOs are currently deployed to four of Melbourne’s biggest shopping centres each day – conducting patrols to prevent crime, engaging with retailers and performing non-invasive searches to remove weapons from the wrong hands.
• In the first week since Pulse began on 8 December police and PSOs made 43 arrests, issued 14 penalty notices and seized eight weapons. More than a third of detected offences were for shop steal.
• The operation supports long running Victoria Police operations targeting retail theft including Operation Stand which covers the CBD and has led to 180 arrests for retail theft and more than 1100 charges since July 2024.

Quotes attributable to Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Bob Hill:

“Victoria Police is determined to reduce the crime levels in this state – we are here for all Victorians.

“Far too many innocent people are being impacted by crime with many suffering from ongoing physical, psychological or financial issues.

“Our hardworking officers continue to hold criminals to account, with 3,000 arrests of Victoria’s worst youth offenders, record family violence enforcement and the removal of 16,000 knives from the hands of dangerous criminals in the past year.

“Significant organisational change is underway in VicPol which will see more police visible in our communities – deterring criminal behaviour and preventing crime are key to our success.

“A new hi-tech deployment and intelligence hub has also commenced testing and once fully operational will prove crucial in quickly getting on top of unfolding crime across the state.

“Combined, we are confident these changes will lead to less victims of crime and a greater sense of safety within the Victorian community.”

Media Unit
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