Crime has fallen in 11 of the 17 major offence categories in the Shoalhaven LAC in the past 12 months.

“Overall, I’m happy where we are travelling as a command,” Supt Cassar said.

“But as a commander, I will never be happy until crime is down to zero. And that is the key focus of all police.

“We are here to do as good a job as we possibly can but we need help from the public in reporting crime.

“There has been a fairly consistent downward trend in crime over the last three years.

“Figures continue to fall and that’s attributed to our daily analysis of crime stats and trends and with us putting officers in the right areas at the right time.”

Break and enter to dwellings, robbery without a weapon, and robbery with a weapon not a firearm recorded increases as did stealing from a motor vehicle and dwellings, which remains a concern.

There was also a large increase in fraud offences, which Supt Cassar put down to a number of factors, one being the theft of credit cards and their use in the tap and go system.

“The main crimes I would personally like to see fall are steal from motor vehicle and steal from dwelling,” he said.

The report showed domestic violence related assaults reduced from 419 to 402, assault non-domestic violence related reduced from 488 to 445, sexual assaults were down by 19 from 108 to 89, there was also a reduction in indecent assaults, act of indecency and other sexual offences.

There was a reduction of 80 in break and enter non-dwellings from 276 to 196, while motor vehicle theft was also down from 227 to 209.

Steal from a retail store and steal from a person reduced, while there were 91 fewer cases of malicious damage to property.

There was also one fewer case of robbery with a firearm no murders in the past 12 months.

Supt Cassar said he was happy with the reduction of malicious damage, which had one of the most significant reductions of around 20 to 25 per cent.

Although there was a decrease in domestic violence charges, Supt Cassar said there were still “too many cases”.

“It’s good there has been a reduction but I’m certain there are many more cases of domestic violence that go unreported,” he said.

“It’s probably a strange statement but I would actually like to see reports of domestic violence increase. 

“I don’t want to see domestic violence increase but if the reports do increase it means more people are willing to report matters.

“That’s important. No one should have to live in and put up with a domestic violent situation.”

The biggest category increase was stealing from a motor vehicle, which rose by 126 from 579 in 2013 to 705 in 2014.

The instance of fraud also had a major increase, 2013 figures jumping by 79 from 268 to 347 last year.

There was increase of 64 cases of break and enter to dwellings from 576 to 640, stealing from a dwelling jumped by 10 to 364, robbery with a weapon not a firearm increased by six from 11 to 17, while robbery without a weapon increased by five from 17 to 22 and Supt Cassar again reinforced the message of needing people to report crime.

“This is particularly important when it comes to drug related crimes and incidents,” he said.

“To stop the drug trade we need to identify the suppliers and manufacturers and target them but we need the public to provide information.”

Anyone wanting to report crime in the Shoalhaven can contact police on 4421 9699 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.