Thursday 19 April 2012

The NSW North Coast scores a pass mark when it comes to crimes involving firearms - but not so good with murder


New South Wales is a big place when you think about it – all 809,444 km2  or so of it. About 7.3 million people live within state borders, which is around 32% of the entire Australian population. Almost 8% of all Walers live on the Mid and Far North Coast.

The bad news………………
“The offence of ‘discharge firearm into premises’ rose by 41 per cent (from 71 incidents in 2010 to 100 incidents in 2011) in the two years to December 2011, according to the annual crime statistics report released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
Around half of NSW recorded incidents of ‘discharge firearm into premises’ in 2011 were recorded in the three Sydney statistical subdivisions (SSDs) of Canterbury-Bankstown, Central Western Sydney and Fairfield-Liverpool.”
There were 410 robberies involving a firearm in NSW in 2011.
{BOSCAR Media Release on 17th April 2012 on NSW Recorded Crime Statistics 2011 and NSW Recorded Crime Statistics 2011}

The good news………………
None of those ‘drive by’ shootings happened on the NSW North Coast. Only 10 robberies (from Bellingen right up to the NSW-QLD border) involved someone carrying a firearm – or just 2% of all robberies with firearms.

Something to think about……….
NSW recorded 75 murders in 2011. Only 4 murders are listed for the NSW North Coast but these make up 5% of all the state’s murders last year.

No comments: