Shop break-ins in Katherine have jumped again - to 310 in the past year, a rise of 223 per cent.
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The town's business owners called a meeting with police after the last lot of crime figures came out showing an annual rise of 162 per cent.
The latest crime figures, released today, show the upward trend has continued.
Break-ins on commercial businesses leapt from 96 in 2017, to 310 last year - we now within reach of one shop break-in every day in town.
Every category of crime except sexual assault and car theft rose in the latest numbers.
Sex assaults were down by almost a third and car theft was down slightly.
Property damage crimes also rose again, with 365 incidents last year.
House break-ins across Katherine rose 27.4 per cent to number 144.
Assaults were also up nine per cent, with 598 incidents, the bulk them domestic violence related.
Responding to the crime figures, Commander Michael Hebb said there has been a continued reduction in assaults, alcohol-related assaults and domestic violence assaults over the past three months.
He said in October, Katherine police increased their focus on performing Point of Sale Intervention functions at liquor outlets in an effort to reduce alcohol-related harm.
This focus will continue with the commencement of Police Auxiliary Liquor Inspectors in Katherine from early January 2019 in an effort to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence within the community.
Property crime in Katherine, particularly break-ins of private and commercial premises, was still significantly up for the 12 months ending December 2018, when comparing the 12 months ending December 2017, he acknowledged.
Commercial break-ins are up 223% and house break-ins are up 27%.
"Katherine Police are committed to working with our community to reduce property crime within the town," Commander Hebb said.
"Police are continuing to meet with members of the public, including the Katherine Chamber of Commerce.
"There is ongoing victim engagement to inform policing activities in an effort to address increases in property crime. Crime prevention strategies are being regularly communicated to community members in an effort to prevent opportunistic offending.
"Katherine Police have recently also launched Operation Pelion, which will be a multifaceted approach to crime reduction, with police members committed to the operation who will perform the following (but not limited to) functions:
- Use intelligence products to target recidivist offenders;
- Improve the intelligence holdings on recidivist property offenders and engage in strategies (inclusive of multi-agency approaches) to reduce the desire and ability for repeat offenders to commit crime;
- Conduct repeat victim engagement – victims will be re-empowered and at every possible opportunity, be a part of the judicial process;
- Review finalised unlawful entry cases to ascertain whether there are additional avenues of enquiry;
- Clear up current unlawful entry cases where there is forensic or fingerprint evidence;
- Conduct daily audits of unlawful entry cases to ensure best practice and improved governance and accountability; and
- Conduct covert policing activities in known hotspots.
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