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There\u2019s a nickname for Smith Street, the modish strip that bisects Collingwood and Fitzroy, that most people are unfamiliar with: \u201cSmack Street\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could walk down here any day of the week, any time of day, and be offered heroin,\u201d says Greg Denham, a former police senior sergeant.<\/p>\n
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Former police officer Greg Denham now connects drug users to health and social services.<\/span>Credit: <\/span> Simon Schluter<\/cite><\/p>\n To Denham and his colleagues, the thoroughfare was notorious, one of the hotspots to score in the heroin epidemic that gripped Melbourne in the mid-90s.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were people injecting in laneways and backstreets, and you could see deals being done.\u201d <\/p>\n Denham spent 15 years with police, sometimes enforcing drug laws he disagreed with, and now works with cohealth, a not-for-profit that connects users with health and social services.<\/p>\n His career progression mirrors a trend in policing across the developed world of treating offenders in the grips of addiction with a health response rather than locking them up.<\/p>\n \u201cThe criminal justice system has started taking a therapeutic approach \u2013 looking at how it can intervene when someone is experiencing problematic drug use behaviour and address those underlying issues,\u201d Denham says.<\/p>\n But drug experts are concerned about a new threat: synthetic opioid fentanyl and its potential to cause significant harm and contribute to offending.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what\u2019s happening in the US and Canada is around fentanyl, and so we\u2019re very, very worried about fentanyl in Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Melbourne is in a privileged position. Fentanyl, which can be 50 times stronger than heroin, has yet to appear on the street and wreak the same level of havoc it has in North America.<\/p>\n As part of this masthead\u2019s Home Safe series, we are examining how Melbourne\u2019s crime rate compares with London, New York, Berlin, Tokyo and Montreal. We\u2019re also looking at the role crime plays in our city, what it means for others, and patterns over the past few decades.<\/p>\n Melbourne scored 73 on The Economist\u2019<\/em>s Safe Cities Index in 2021, ranking behind London, which scored 74.4, and Tokyo on 73.3, but in front of New York City on 66.9.<\/p>\n The index considers different metrics and gives a rounded picture of the interaction of economic security and the effectiveness of police and the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n Statistics compiled by The Age<\/em> show that the homicide rate in London and Montreal is lower than in Melbourne. Berlin\u2019s is slightly higher and New York City\u2019s considerably higher.<\/p>\n The robbery rate is much lower in Melbourne than comparable police departments in London and Montreal.<\/p>\n On the whole, however, crime in metropolitan areas has decreased in the past few decades.<\/p>\n This includes cities with a relatively dangerous reputation, like New York City, says American crime analyst Jeff Asher.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can compare New York with where it was 30 years ago, where it was in the \u201990s, and it\u2019s like, all of these crime figures are laughably small,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve had this incredible success story within New York.\u201d<\/p>\n This success story is relative: the homicide rate in New York City is still four times higher than in Melbourne, at 5.25 per 100,000 people compared to Victoria\u2019s 1.26 per 100,000. But it\u2019s far lower than it was.<\/p>\n \u201cJust going over the numbers, the 30-year change in murder is minus 80 per cent, rape is minus 60 per cent almost, robberies minus 80 per cent, assaults minus 33 per cent, burglaries minus 86 per cent,\u201d Asher says.<\/p>\n But drugs remain a problem. Data released in September showed that overdose deaths in New York City increased by 12 per cent from 2021 to 2022, with fentanyl detected in 81 per cent of drug overdose deaths.<\/p>\n There has been a 60 per cent increase in vehicle thefts in New York in the past two years.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n In the past 12 months, the city also recorded an increase in gun violence, leading to a New York Police Department crackdown. Asher says that police are also grappling with unexpected sources for crime, like social media.<\/p>\n For example, Asher says, he traced a spike in motor vehicle theft to a single video uploaded on TikTok in July 2022, showing how to steal a type of car.<\/p>\n \u201cAuto theft is up 60 per cent over the last two years in New York,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The rate of car theft in Victoria has remained fairly stable over the past eight years, with the highest rate recorded by police in 2017.<\/p>\n Crime can also manifest along the fault lines of social and political cohesion.<\/p>\n Professor Marc Coester, criminologist at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, says Berlin has 19 protests a day, or about 7000 a year.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can imagine most demonstrations are peaceful, but if you have 19 demonstrations per day, you will always see violence against police officers and counterprotesters in some form,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Coester says Berlin has experienced politically motivated crime as far-right activists motivated by racism target Green and left-wing politicians, sometimes with arson.<\/p>\n Berlin\u2019s homicide rate is also higher than Melbourne\u2019s, at 1.6 per 100,00 people, in 2022.<\/p>\n One event from about 11 months ago sticks in people\u2019s minds. On New Year\u2019s Eve 2022, hundreds of migrant youth and men who live in the Neukolln quarter in the centre of Berlin, clashed with police. It was the culmination of years of offending in the city centre, the cultural and economic limitations diaspora communities face, and the limited employment opportunities for migrants.<\/p>\n A banner warning Berliners about lighting firecrackers in Alexanderplatz on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>DPA via AFP<\/cite><\/p>\n Rioters used pyrotechnics and fireworks to damage property, leaving dozens of police officers, firefighters, rescue workers, pedestrians and journalists injured. Authorities detained 145 people.<\/p>\n Coester said the event caused anxiety in the community and gave the far right a pretext to oppose further immigration and demonise migrants.<\/p>\n Like in most cities, Coester says, crime is concentrated in the centre of Berlin. In 2022, there were 14,135 offences per 100,000 people in the city, with 519,827 offences recorded by police. Most of those offences, Coester says, were fraud and theft: cars, shoplifting, and burglary.<\/p>\n Like in Melbourne, policymakers are looking closely at how to reach young offenders and intervene earlier before criminal behaviour becomes entrenched.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were, so far, three summits against youth violence initiated by the governing mayor after the New Year\u2019s riots,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The German government has invested more than \u20ac100 million ($164 million) in social programs aimed at reducing crime, including measures for schools, social work, prevention programs for parents, job initiatives and sport.<\/p>\n As in Melbourne, a focus for Montreal police is gun crime.<\/p>\n Though gun-related offences have remained low compared to US cities, the homicide rate in the Canadian city has risen consistently over the past five years, from 24 in 2017 to 41 in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a sharp rise in violence in the last three years and a lot of gun discharges as well,\u201d explains Etienne Blais, a criminologist at the University of Montreal, and life-long resident of the city.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you compare it to American cities like New York, Boston, Chicago or even Philadelphia, we register a fraction of what you will find in the States, and as in Australia, it\u2019s quite safe to walk in the streets,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Victoria and Montreal have very similar rates of car theft, with Victoria at 221.2 per 100,000 people compared to Montreal\u2019s 223.29. But, when it comes to burglary, Victoria\u2019s rate is much higher at 446.9 per 100,000 people, whereas Montreal sits at just 146.93 in 2022.<\/p>\n As in Berlin and Melbourne, police are focusing on youth crime, with a few high-profile incidents that shocked the community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a case where teenagers, they were 14, were riding their scooter and they decided to shoot at some people who were living in on a block that was owned by a rival gang,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Gun violence is on the rise and perpetrators are getting younger in Montreal.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Young men involved in gun violence appear to be getting younger, he says, and account for a larger portion of people accused of perpetrating violent crime.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen that \u2013 people, from 14, getting guns, shooting guns, it\u2019s quite new,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Canada is also monitoring fentanyl trafficking closely and is investing in safe injecting facilities, called safe consumption sites (SCS) around the country.<\/p>\n There were about 4.3 million visits to these sites between 2017 and June 2023, according to the Canadian government. The busiest of the 39 centres in Canada record more than 400 visits a day.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been hundreds of people dying every day because of overdoses and drugs that were cut with fentanyl,\u201d Blais says. Community groups have begun investing in testing devices so users can avoid the drug, he says.<\/p>\n Professor Emmeline Taylor from the City, University of London, is a leading voice in British criminology.<\/p>\n She says that London has a vibrant, lively city centre, where some of the richest people in the country live close to some of the most disadvantaged.<\/p>\n \u201cAs with any large metropolitan city, London experiences a variety of crime types, from complex violent cases to organised crime to more minor infractions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As in Melbourne, police are concerned about a growing trend among young offenders.<\/p>\n London police are struggling to meet recruitment targets.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cIn particular, knife crime is a concern, particularly amongst young people. The total number of knife offences in the capital increased 90 per cent between 2011 and 2021. Injury with intent to cause serious harm increased by 68 per cent and fatal injuries increased by 12 per cent,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n London police are struggling to meet recruitment targets, a difficulty that Victoria Police is also facing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Met is the largest police force in Europe. It delivers policing services to 9 million Londoners across 32 boroughs and to millions of commuters and visitors to the capital each year,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe police in England and Wales is widely recognised as being severely under-resourced, and the Met police are understaffed and haven\u2019t been able to meet recruitment targets.\u201d<\/p>\n Tokyo is the most homogenous and safest of all the cities analysed.<\/p>\n Dr Masahiro Suzuki, a researcher at Central Queensland University Australia, says Tokyo is fairly safe compared to other major international cities, with very little street crime. Violence and muggings are relatively rare.<\/p>\n \u201cTokyo is a relatively homogenous city. Tokyo is obviously more culturally and ethnically diverse than any other city in Japan, but it is less so, way less so, than Melbourne,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Tokyo\u2019s homogeneity may contribute to it being safe, says researcher Masahiro Suzuki.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n He thinks this factor makes it easier for authorities to control crime.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the homogeneity in Tokyo may contribute to exercising social control over people because they share the same values,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, I also think this homogeneity [in] Tokyo contributes to socially excluding people who do not comply with the social norms or rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Japan has a notoriously tough criminal justice system that allows police to detain suspects for 23 days without charge, with limited access to legal advice.<\/p>\n However, Suzuki says that most Japanese people would be unaware of that fact.<\/p>\n As well, Japan has strong anti-association laws for the Yakuza organised crime gangs, including banning the leasing of homes to them, which go far beyond similar laws in Australia.<\/p>\n But the broader compliance with the law, Suzuki says, is also attributable to trust in police.<\/p>\n Tokyo has a community policing unit called the omawari-san. If you need directions, or have left your wallet on the train, they will help you.<\/p>\n Police officers stand guard near the meeting of the G7 in Tokyo in April.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP Pool<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s contributed to promoting the legitimacy and trust toward Japanese police among Japanese citizens,\u201d Suzuki says.<\/p>\n Suzuki says Japanese police are focused on preventing low-level crime, being a visible, but non-threatening presence in the community, and building trust. He says that there is a perception in Japan that law enforcement corruption is very low, despite the tough laws to deal with offenders.<\/p>\n The Economist<\/em> study found that low corruption and good personal security were strongly correlated.<\/p>\n But one thing that The Age<\/em> discovered across all the cities surveyed is that people universally believed crime was higher than it actually was in their cities.<\/p>\n A February 2020 study on social cohesion found that while fear of crime in the Victorian community was not widespread, where a fear of crime was present, providing residents with a range of options to address this worry in pro-social ways was likely to reduce worry.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply put, when I think about safety, I think of the freedom from fear \u2013 to live, work and play without the perception of fear,\u201d says Juma Assiago from the Urban Practices Branch at the United Nations.<\/p>\n He says that people often forget that safety is co-created, not given by the police or any single institution.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outlook of high crime in cities in most urbanised societies, such as in Latin America with gang violence … we now see with emerging acts of violent extremism and hate in Western societies that a decade ago considered themselves very safe.<\/p>\n \u201cSafety is a common responsibility for all.\u201d<\/p>\n In Melbourne, Denham and cohealth often speak to European and North American social work organisations about trends, law enforcement, what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n Last year, Australian Federal Police intercepted an illicit shipment containing 11.2 kilograms of fentanyl bound for Melbourne. But unlike other international cities, the drug hasn\u2019t become the problem Australian authorities have dreaded.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it came through, in those types of amounts, it would be devastating, it would devastate our community,\u201d Denham says.<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. <\/i><\/b>Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nThe \u2018incredible success story\u2019 of New York City<\/h3>\n
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A city of protest in Berlin<\/h3>\n
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Montreal: Sharp rise in violence in peaceful city<\/h3>\n
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Europe\u2019s largest police force understaffed<\/h3>\n
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Tokyo\u2019s safe streets<\/h3>\n
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