THE NORTH'S most senior police officer has thanked the community following a drop across several crime types.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tasmania Police's Northern Commander Richard Cowling said business, home and car burglaries along with public place assaults had all decreased last financial year.
The new figures reveal 45 fewer home robberies and 49 fewer business burglaries in 2013-14 in the same period. Public place assaults dropped from 248 to 229.
"This is a credit to the community," Commander Cowling said.
Launceston CIB Detective Inspector Scott Flude said the city's nightlife areas were a lot quieter than a decade ago.
"People are more compliant ... we're getting less breathalyser [offences]" he said.
The drop in public place assaults also follows the courts dishing out some tough sentences in order to send a message that street violence won't be tolerated.
On Friday an MMA fighter from Invermay and a Southern man were jailed over separate incidents involving coward punches in Launceston and Hobart.
The same professional fighter was also given a suspended prison sentence earlier in the year for an attack on an a 60-year-old man in Launceston.
In April a 21-year-old Launceston man was also jailed for assaulting a man in the Quadrant Mall last year.
Public disturbances are down 122 incidents across the North with total public order incidents down 197 events.
The drop in these crimes is tempered with a small rise in serious crime and an increase in vandalism.
In one night 17 businesses and cars had windows broken with a slingshot.
Hooning is also up.
Commander Cowling said high-visibility policing was behind the results.
He pointed to successful drug busts by Launceston CIB such as Operation Crimson which nabbed more than $1 million in ecstasy and ice on Thursday.
"If you targeting drugs and drug dealing then it has an impact on crime. We know if you're a drug user and we are reducing the amount of drugs ... the users can't get it that readily therefore they don't [commit crimes]," he said.
The drop in car burglaries was also pleasing to police given most occur when vehicles go unlocked.
The Launceston CIB had a clearance rate of 75.4 per cent for serious crime.
pbillings@examiner.com.au