Data from the Crime Statistics Agency, released on Thursday morning, reveals the number of offences recorded in Victoria in the year from March 2020 until March 2021 covering three of the four COVID lockdowns.

But the glaring exception to the good news was family violence, which continued to be an issue through 2020.

In the Ballarat Police Service area, which includes the City of Ballarat and Pyrenees Shire, the total number of offences recorded per 100,000 population decreased from 10,191 to 8372.

That is a decrease of 17.9 per cent, with most crime categories recording decreases in offences.

Acting Superintendent Paul Bertoncello said the reduction in the number of offences was really positive.

"We are really proud that the combined efforts of the community, stakeholders and police have resulted in record low crime rates over the last 12 months," he said.

While he noted it could be attributed in part to COVID-19, he said police were working to understand exactly what had been done right and how it could be continued moving forward.

"COVID has certainly had a suppressive effect on crime over the last 12 months, but we can see that it is not the only factor at play in Central Highlands," he said.

"We will continue to carefully analyse all the information to determine where we are truly positively impacting community safety, where we need to renew our focus, adjust our operational priorities and do better."

One of the most significant decreases was theft of and from motor vehicles and criminal damage.

The data reveals 890 stealing from a motor vehicle offences were recorded, compared to 1491 the previous year. Meanwhile, theft of motor vehicle offences also reduced drastically, from 647 to 368.

There was also a reduction in thefts from retail stores, down from 509 to 378.

Criminal damage offences recorded were the lowest they have been since 2012, down from 1738.6 in 2012 to 704 in the year ending March this year.

"Over the last 12 months we have been proactive in preventing and deterring offending by recidivist offenders - stopping them before they really get started on mini-crime sprees," Acting Superintendent Bertoncello said.

"We have worked hard with the community to increase guardianship around cars and homes...we may sound like a broken record at times, but it remains crucial that the community continues to help us by locking cars and houses."

Crime was down in most suburbs, including Ballarat Central, Wendouree, Sebastopol and Ballarat East, though rose slightly in Delacombe.

In the Moorabool police service area, encompassing Moorabool, Hepburn and Golden Plains shires, there were 4882.4 offences recorded per 100,000 population in the year ending March 2021, compared to 4886.2 the previous year.

While crimes against the person, justice and property and deception offences both decreased significantly, drug and public order and security offences increased slightly.

Breaches of the chief health officers' directions are included in the category of 'other offences'.

There were 421 offences recorded in the Moorabool PSA, which has contributed to the crime rate remaining essentially the same, with 371 offences recorded in Ballarat.

Despite all of the positive reductions in crime, lockdowns and COVID restrictions resulted in family violence being a serious issue throughout 2020.

There were 2420 family violence incidents recorded in the City of Ballarat in the year ending March 2021, compared to 1706 the previous year. That is an increase of 41 per cent.

The number of incidents also increased slightly in Moorabool Shire (from 463 to 493), and Golden Plains (133 to 191).

The number of incidents recorded in Hepburn dropped slightly (189 to 156), as well as in Pyrenees (101 to 99).

About the massive increase in family violence incidents in Ballarat, Acting Superintendent Bertoncello said while it was sad, positives could be taken from it.

"We can take positives from that in that we have been on the front foot on enforcing breaches of intervention orders, and although it is small comfort for the community, we feel that the increase in family violence reporting is indicative of increased trust in us and our partner agencies.

"...That if family violence is reported in the Central Highlands, you will get a supportive, victim-focused, professional response."

Police are currently finalising their operational priorities for the year ahead and will share them in the coming weeks.

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