Victoria Police has announced as part of its latest Crime Statistics Agency data release that its “concentrated effort” on hoon drivers has proved “great results” despite a growing number of dangerous driving offences.
Known as Operation Achilles, this operation commenced in February 2021 to reduce the harm caused by hoon driving.
Since it started, Victoria Police has charged more than 360 hoon drivers with almost 3000 offences and impounded 375 vehicles connected to intentional high-risk driving.
According to police intelligence, this high level of enforcement has led to a 75 per cent decrease in organised hoon meets.
During 2022 there was a significant increase in dangerous driving offences, up 20.6 per cent over 2021 and 44.4 per cent up from 2019.
Victoria Police claims this is attributable to the “proactive focus” on road safety throughout last year and is also linked to other forms of offending, such as theft of motor vehicles.
Speaking of car thefts, they increased year-on-year by 6.2 per cent, though there will still 3756 fewer cars stolen than 2019.
Carjacking offences also slumped to their lowest level since the offence was introduced in December 2016. There were 243 carjacking in Victoria last year, down from 319 in 2021.
“While criminal offending increased slightly from 2021, it is very pleasing that overall crime is still almost 10 per cent below pre-pandemic levels,” said Victoria Police deputy commissioner regional operations Rick Nugent.
“These trends are in line with our expectations based on the intelligence available to us, which indicates
that crime as a whole has not dramatically ‘snapped back’ to pre-COVID levels.”
“Over the coming year, police will continue to focus on proactive prevention and enforcement to ensure that
the community is not only safe, but also feels safe in their homes, in public and on the roads,” he added.
