Victoria’s crime statistics for the 2019/2020 financial year were revealed this week, and a former homicide detective says they point to a worrying policing problem.

The data revealed the number of criminal offences recorded was up by 5.6 per cent compared to the 2018/2019 financial year.

Veteran police officer and former detective, Charlie Bezzina, says he believes the rising crime rate is due to a lack of police resources.

“What that tells me is that police are losing the fight as they lack resources” he told Dee Dee.

“The fight is being lost in the prevention of crime.

“I know the community need to be more engaged in crime prevention, but that won’t work if there are no police to respond.

“It is concerning for us and we really need to bolster up the numbers of the police that we’ve got.”

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