Home burglaries in Broome, Derby high

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Home burglaries in Broome, Derby high

The police statistics show that burglary rates have gone up to their highest level in Broome and Derby, and victims of crime are taking to social media to try to recover their belongings.

Honey Taylor hopes that her father's ashes will be returned.

The ashes were contained in an acorn-shaped locket on a necklace taken during a daylight break-in at a Broome home.

In the first three months of the year, there were 124 home burglaries in Derby and 86 in Broome.

During this period, the Operation Regional Shield was announced but the incident numbers show an increase in home burglaries in the two West Kimberley towns.

Community leaders say it will be interesting to see the effect the police operation will have on the statistics for the second quarter of the year, given the fact that the statistics for post-March are not yet available.

On Monday morning, thieves broke into Ms Taylor's home, which she shares with her partner and their housemate, and stole laptops, car keys, and jewellery.

Ms Taylor was shocked when she found her precious acorn locket, containing the ashes of her father, stolen.

She said it's not a money item for me, but it's just having that back in my possession.

After posting on a local community social media site, Ms Taylor was flooded with messages of sympathy but she was still not sure if she had found her acorn locket.

Ms Taylor said she felt unsafe and immediately bought security cameras after the incident.

Christian Francois, a local, had recently moved to Broome to work as a chef.

He almost left the town, just days into his arrival, after thieves broke into his hotel room and stole his chef knife.

It's really detrimental and upsetting because I came here for a new start and Broome is in desperate need of hospitality workers and it makes things not worth living here, he said.

Police figures show that the highest number of dwelling-based burglaries in Broome is in 2014, and Derby showed a similar peak in numbers. Kununurra and Fitzroy Crossing had their peaks in 2019 and 2018.

Derby had an average of 30 incidents in the first three months of the year. The statistics showed an overwhelming 400 per cent increase in home burglaries between January and March this year.

Shire of Derby West Kimberley president Geoff Haerewa said the official numbers confirmed anecdotal evidence on the ground.

He said the numbers don't lie.

It's four times worse than average for the past 10 years or so. Operation Regional Shield will hopefully help. It will be interesting to see what the numbers will be like over the next 12 months. The numbers in Broome were surprising, according to Haerewa.

Given the number of people in Broome and the resources that Broome has got, they're better positioned to handle the crime rate that's happening there, he said.

Ms Taylor said the experience had shaken her but she insisted it was just a part of living in the Kimberley.

She said you just have to take it on the chin and keep moving if you want to be here.

I don't know what the solution is, but I will definitely be approaching things a little differently now.