Overall crime rate is mostly unchanged

Despite opinions circulated on social media, overall crime rates in South Hedland for the past five years have "remained reasonably stagnant".

South Hedland police Senior Sergeant Dean Snashall told community members gathered in Daylesford Park last Thursday there had been drops in some offences and spikes in others.

"Overall, I just want you to know that the crime rate in South Hedland over the past five years, hasn't gone up or down, it has remained reasonably stagnant if you look at the total offences," he said.

"When you look at the figures…we have had a significant decrease in reported assaults … domestic assaults are down 18 per cent in the past 12 months, and non-domestic assaults are down 22 per cent.

"Unfortunately it is our property offences … we are seeing an issue with - burglaries, stealing of cars, quad bikes and motorbikes."

Speaking to a small group of local residents and police officers Sen. Sgt Snashall said the station's clearance rates were 25 per cent, higher than the 16 per cent State average for volume crime.

He said to tackle crime, there needed to be a multi-agency approach that involved government departments and local organisations.

"Officers are doing a really good job at catching the crooks," he said.

"Unfortunately, we are finding we are catching the same ones all the time.

"If we have five repeat offenders that are causing us the most grief, we want to know where they are living … we want to put the pressure on them.

"We want Department of Housing, Child Protection, the local organisations, we want all those services to come into those areas that are causing us the most grief."

One of the first questions asked of Sen. Sgt Snashall was whether the location of the forum had been cho- sen because of the high number of calls residents in the area made to police.

Town of Port Hedland Mayor Kelly Howlett was quick to clarify that she had chosen the location based on the desire to hold such forums in a variety of locations.

Residents questioned Sen. Sgt Snashall about police numbers, juvenile offenders, quad bikes, police attendance at jobs, and feeding information back to the community.