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Police believe property crime has reduced between five and 15 per cent in the Bendigo region recently, but warned it was still higher than this time last year.
Superintendent Darren Franks said a successful ‘Bendigo’s most wanted’ campaign, which tracked down 12 of 20 targets, coupled with a high-volume crime focus from local police has proved fruitful.
“It’s really about reducing the amount of victims in the community,” said Superintendent Franks, who suggested police would focus on the market for receiving stolen goods.
“Much of the stolen property goes online,” he said.
Of the eight remaining criminals, Superintendent Franks said police had plenty of leads to follow and make arrests.
“The input from community has been fantastic, we’ve had a tremendous amount of calls,” he said.
Crime Stoppers Victoria general manager Cathy Rhodes said any campaign that included an arrest was a success.
“Want to thank the community, without the community Crime Stoppers would not be,” she said.
The organisation was harnessing all forms of social media, including new Eyewatch Facebook pages, to help catch criminals, she said.
Superintendent Franks said the 12 arrested and facing charges was 12 they wouldn’t have had a few weeks ago.
“What we’ve found is that there’s a small number of people committing a large number of crimes, so to get 12 is a good result,” he said.
Ms Rhodes said the success of this campaign and others, including Dob in a Dealer, had encouraged the organisation to venture into other crime areas, but said those future campaigns were currently confidential.
Crime prevention campaigns, like the Bushfire Arson and Reckless Fires Awareness Campaign, had been running successfully for a number of years, Ms Rhodes said.
Ms Rhodes also thanked the media for their role in the campaign.