Article: More crimes, but safer, says minister

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

More crimes, but safer, says minister

More crimes, but safer, says minister
CLAY LUCAS
June 10, 2010

TRANSPORT Minister Martin Pakula says Melbourne's trains are getting safer - even though the number of crimes has not fallen over the past four years.

Last financial year there were 7055 offences, which include vandalism. That is a small increase on 2005-06 and 2006-07, but Mr Pakula said that because more people were using trains, people were statistically less likely to be victims.

Rail unions and the state opposition disagreed, saying this was at odds with the experience of passengers.

The statistics, released by the Auditor-General, follow Friday night's attack at McKinnon station, where passengers on a Metro train were left to fend for themselves as a mob brandished broken bottles and threw rocks at windows.

In 2008-09 there were 1190 assaults on the train system, compared with 887 in 2005-06.

The report also made clear that the public perceived railway stations as dangerous, particularly at night - and that installing CCTV at stations was having little effect on making travellers feel safer.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Trevor Dobbyn said the solution was to put staff on all stations. Only a third of Melbourne's 211 train stations are staffed full-time. Another 26 stations are staffed for between two and four hours in the morning.

''Metro's own records show there are around 1000 incidents of anti-social behaviour and vandalism on the train network every month,'' Mr Dobbyn said, referring to Metro statistics, which differ from the police figure of 7055.

''Most of these don't get captured in the crime figures but are the reason the public continue to feel unsafe on the system.

Acting Auditor-General Peter Frost's report found that the 7055 incidents amount to 33 offences per million passenger boardings.

This was a fall of 27 per cent from 2005-06, when there were 45 offences per million passengers boarding.

Of the criminal offences recorded in the year to last June:

■ 17 per cent were assaults.

■ 62 per cent were thefts or property damage.

■ Five per cent involved possessing and trafficking drugs.

■ 16 per cent were for illegal weapons, or inappropriate public behaviour.

''Crime on Melbourne's train system remained constant over the four years between 2005-06 and 2008-09 at around 7000 offences per year,'' the report found.

It said that while the impact of crime ''can be devastating for those involved'', the chances of a passenger being affected by crime were statistically low.

Transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the report focused on perceptions rather than the reality occurring daily on the train system.

''The public would be surprised - given what they face out there - that this government is saying that everything is fine,'' Mr Mulder said.

If the opposition wins government in November, it promises to employ 940 police protective service officers. Two would be stationed at every station from 6pm until the last train each night, seven days a week.

The report also found that the community saw ticket inspectors as revenue-collectors. Their presence did little to make people feel safer.

[Golliwog]

If the opposition wins government in November, it promises to employ 940 police protective service officers. Two would be stationed at every station from 6pm until the last train each night, seven days a week.

What? I can get trying to curb crimes on the rail network, but to me that just seems like an gross waste of money. It will most likely achieve its goal, but surely there is a less 'big brother-esque' way to do it.