By Margaret Maccoll
Burglars no longer find Noosa a favoured destination, with robberies in the area having dropped an astounding 90 per cent in almost 20 years.
Police statistics shows the number of burglaries in the 2001-02 financial year in the Noosa district were over 500.
This year on current trends police expect it to number 59, which is also a 12 per cent decrease from last year.
Noosa senior sergeant Ben Carroll said a similar result can be seen in shop break and enters.
In the past year there has only been five shop break and enters which is a drop of 66 per cent from the year before and a 95 per cent reduction from almost 100 shop break ins committed in the 2001-02 financial year.
Snr Sgt Carroll attributes the drop in burglaries and break and enters to a combination of factors including deterrents such as a strong police presence, security systems and cameras as well as improved security education and neighbourhood watch.
“Another factor I think is that the increasing house prices in Noosa have put pressure on the demographic that would have been responsible for a lot of these offences and so that element has had to leave,” he said.
“We find a lot of offenders are either from outside of the Noosa area or are juveniles from other areas in residential care houses within this area.”
Changes in the way people use cash and the value of easily stolen goods such as televisions and stereos has also made a difference.
“People don’t have cash on hand as they did in the past and a lot of items that were previously worth stealing aren’t as valuable any more,” Snr Sgt Carroll said.
“Plus we have good systems in terms of monitoring second hand dealers and pawn brokers so the property is more difficult to dispose of via that route.”
The justice system also deserves acknowledgement for the drop in crime.
“There is a huge amount or work behind the scenes in terms of our court system, sentencing programs, probation and parole and community corrections that we consider has an impact,” snr sgt Carroll said.
Despite these outstanding results police are seeing an upward trend in reported thefts of vehicles, stealing from vehicles and shoplifting with financial pressures a possible motive.
“The impact of the difficult financial circumstances some people are currently facing as a contributor to these increases is difficult to gauge,” Snr Sgt Carroll said.
