The regional city where crime rates are on the rise in Victoria (and why)

Police say the 11.6 per cent spike in Mildura crime has been largely driven by family violence.

The regional city was an outlier in Victoria’s latest crime stats, revealed on Thursday.

Rick Nugent, Deputy Commissioner of Regional Operations at Victoria Police, told Neil Mitchell there was a “very, very active” family violence investigation unit at Mildura.

“There are two parts to this,” he told 3AW Mornings.

“One, there is very active compliance management by people on intervention orders, ensuring they’re not breaching, so that can identify the breaches.

“But also very active engagement, and continued engagement, with victims of family violence.

“In doing so, you identify breaches – text messages, threatening behaviour, phone calls and so on.

“That resulted in about 400-odd extra offences identified in the 12-month period.”

He also confirmed there’d been an increase in aggravated burglaries in the Brighton area, despite overall crime dropping.

The issue was flung into the media spotlight after Bec Judd and Daniel Andrews got into a public spat over the matter.

Press PLAY below to hear Rick Nugent discuss the latest figures