Break and enter offences on the Central Coast have increased by 17.8 per cent and motor vehicle theft by 34.9 per cent in the two year period to December 2023.
In 2022, there were 568 break and enters and 435 car vehicle thefts on the Coast.
In 2023, there were 669 break and enters and 587 vehicle thefts.
Latest figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) show the Central Coast is stable in most of the 13 categories of crime.
It separately counts violent crimes and property crimes.
Violent offences include murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault – domestic violence related, assault – non-domestic violence related, assault police, robbery without a weapon, robbery with a firearm, robbery with a weapon not a firearm, sexual assault and sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences.
Property offences include break and enter dwelling, break and enter non-dwelling, motor vehicle theft, steal from motor vehicle, steal from retail store, steal from dwelling, steal from person, stock theft and other theft.
Over a five-year period, which accounts for the period before the COVID-19 lockdowns, violent crimes on the Central Coast increased by 1.9 per cent while property offences decreased by 6.6 per cent.
Looking at just the latest two-year period, violent crimes are stable while property offences have jumped by 14.5 per cent since the lockdown period.
Across NSW, property crime was unusually low in 2020 and 2021 in line with the COVID 19 pandemic.
The figures from BOSCAR consist of criminal incidents reported to or detected by police and recorded on the NSW police forces computerised operational policing system.
The statistics do not capture crimes that are not recorded on the computerised, operational policing system.
“Recorded crime statistics for some offence categories do not accurately reflect the actual level of crime in the community,” the report says.
“This is because the number of incidents recorded may be affected by extraneous factors which are not easily measured.
“In particular, many crimes which occur are not reported to police and will therefore not be recorded.
“For example, a large number of assault, sexual assault and robberies are not reported to police.”
Across the 13 offences, the Coast’s numbers were: 1,771 domestic violence related assaults; 1,488 non-domestic violence related assaults; 476 sexual assaults; 417 sexual touching sexual act and other sexual offences; 65 robberies; 669 break and enter dwellings; 284 break and enter non-dwellings; 587 motor vehicle theft; 1,294 thefts from motor vehicle; 1,043 thefts from retail stores; 1261 other stealing offences; and 2,341 incidents of malicious damage to property.
The figures for the Central Coast are much lower than for regional areas such as Dubbo, Armidate, Broken Hill and Moree Plains.
When it comes to the ratio of recorded criminal incidents per 100,000 population the Central Coast is mostly below the average.
At the state level, in the five years to December 2023, two of the 13 major offence categories showed a significant upward trend, six showed downward trends, and five were stable.
The two offences trending upwards in the five years to December 2023 were: domestic violence assault (up 3.6 per cent per year on average) and sexual assault (up 10.1 per cent per year on average).
In 2023, across the state, the following six major offences were significantly lower than in 2019: murder, robbery, break and enter-dwelling, steal from motor vehicle, other stealing offences and malicious damage to property.
Rates of violent and property crime are considerably higher in Regional NSW than in greater Sydney, with the Central Coast included in greater Sydney in this instance.
Merilyn Vale