According to data released by the Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday morning, criminal offences recorded in Ballarat have risen by 3.67 per cent per 100,000 people in the year to September 2019.

While the total number of offences recorded have increased by 5.7 per cent on the previous year, the above figure is calculated by 100,000 people to reflect Ballarat's population.

The increase ends the downward trend of the past few years.

Acting Superintendent Damien Christensen said police did not believe there to be an increase in offenders, but the offenders who were out there were committing more crimes.

"We are working to really identify the drivers - whether it's drugs or financial issues - we want to know who is committing these crimes and what the drivers are so we can move in the right direction," he said.

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From 2010-14 the number of offences recorded remained relatively steady however in the year 2014-15, the number spiked.

While the offence rate peaked in 2016, since then the number of offences have decreased - until this year.

The trend is in keeping with the total offences recorded across Victoria, which have increased by 2 per cent per 100,000 Victorians.

The number of recorded offences increased in all offence divisions except for public order and security offences.

The statistics for Ballarat reflect that assaults, sexual offences and family violence offences have decreased, as have public order and drug offences, however, property and deception offences have increased.

While burglaries and property damage offences have decreased, arson and theft offences have starkly increased.

Theft represents the biggest problem for police, especially around motor vehicles, with a 74.55 per cent increase from last year.

Theft from motor vehicles represents 16 per cent of Ballarat's total recorded crimes.

The top five suburbs crimes were recorded in were Ballarat Central, Wendouree, Sebastopol, Ballarat East and Delacombe.

Acting Superintendent Christensen said many crimes committed around Ballarat enable a string of offences, for example if an offender burgles a house they may then steal a set of keys and credit cards before leaving in the homeowner's car, which could be used to commit other crimes such as stealing petrol.

This would then result in burglary, theft and deception charges committed by the one offender.

The statistics reveal the largest proportion of offenders are male and are aged between 18-24, closely followed by offenders in the 10-17 age bracket.

While the statistics highlight that police have summoned or arrested offenders in relation to 44.5 per cent of offences, 46 per cent are marked as unsolved.

Acting Superintendent Christensen said this also related to the trend in a series of offending, as if police can only pin 10 out of 20 burglaries on an offender, the remainder need to be marked as unsolved until they can be proven otherwise.

He said police had made changes in the past year such as rostering detectives on to the night shift, as they were previously only on call, and the release of the statistics was a good time to reflect on how this has worked and what other changes could be made.

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The focus going forward will be gathering intelligence to know which areas to provide extra resources to, without pulling the focus from other areas, and engaging further with community around proactive measures to prevent becoming victims of theft.

Surrounding police areas such as Hepburn and Moorabool have both decreased, however in Pyrenees there has been a stark increase, particularly in relation to breaches of family violence orders.

He encouraged people to report low level crimes or information to the Police Assistance Line to assist police with their intelligence gathering and to keep up-to-date with their Eyewatch pages in regards to who police are looking for.

When even the tow trucks, often sent out to collect stolen and burned out stolen cars from forests, are getting items ripped off by thieves, you know there's a problem in the city.

That's the case in Ballarat this week with one of regions most recognisable towing companies Ballarat Towing Service having - of all things - a wheel tie, stolen from the back of one its trucks.

The heavy, $400 part, was ripped off the back of one of the trucks when it was parked in Humffray Street, Brown Hill, believed to be last weekend.

Why a thief would feel the need to climb on the back of a truck and steal a part which can only be used in conjunction with other parts has got managing directer Damian Wood baffled.

"If you want to take it and use it, you couldn't do it without the other parts," Mr Wood told The Courier.

"You'd think it's just an opportunistic crime, maybe someone coming home from a function, with a bit of dutch courage and thought they'd have a laugh.

"It's a very heavy piece, there's no way you could carry it far. It wouldn't surprise me if someone in Humffray Street or Brown Hill finds it in their front yard."

Mr Wood said the loss of the wheel tie had taken one of the four trucks off the road this week, which had taken until Thursday to be replaced.

He said while it was disappointing the theft has occurred, he wasn't surprised given the amount of damaged or destroyed cars tow trucks come across.

"We come across a lot of stuff that's been taken from old scrap cars," he said.

"If you happen to have to leave your car on the side of the freeway for any length of time, you can guarantee when you come back parts will be missing.

"Number plates are huge, vandalism as well. Unfortunately most crime is a crime of opportunity."

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