The Sydney Morning Herald, Tue 18 Feb 1845 ¹

STATISTICS OF CRIME IN SYDNEY
I.

ABOUT this time last year, we gave some interesting statistics connected with the state of crime in the city of Sydney, chiefly for the purpose of showing, by comparison with similar returns of towns in England, that our police establishment was numerically insufficient. The evidence of MR MILES  Chief Commissioner of Police, appended to the Report from the Select Committee on the insecurity of live and property, furnishes, however, a much wider range of information on this important subject than we then possessed.

    The principal fact established by MR MILES'S tables is, that during the last four years, crime in the aggregate has been gradually on the decrease. It should be understood, however, that the tables are to be taken with some degree of qualification. “These returns,” observes MR MILES  “do not afford correct data, or there may have been a falling off in the activity of the police, which I do not admit, although an unsettled state of police (alluding to the diminution of the force and other alterations introduced by the Government,) is calculated to do much mischief in the force. I do not allow the police to interfere ruthlessly with drunken men for the sake of the fines; if they are unable to take care of themselves, or if they are a nuisance to the public, the police interfere. Thus the decrease in the number of drunkards does not prove that there is less drunkenness, although the impression on my mind is, that there is decidedly less. A great proportion of the apprehensions consist of person charged with drunkenness. Deduct that number, and the number of disorderly characters, and have a nearer approximation; though I still observe that these tables cannot afford an accurate test of increase or decrease, though valuable as comparative with other tables of the same kind.”

    It is due to MR MILES to observe, that his tables have been prepared under great disadvantages in point of clerical assistance. “I have neither office nor clerks,” he states, “for the executive department; and therefore I have great difficulty in keeping records to prepare returns for police purposes.”

    A large proportion of the crime is attributed by this officer to prisoners, or those who have been prisoners. Having gone through the committal book for the first five months of the year 1844, he finds that the total number of offenders committed by the Sydney bench within that period was 169, of which number there were— 

Offenders committed by Sydney bench, Jan-May 1844

    He takes this as a fair average, and believes it to be the case that two-thirds of the offences are committed by those who have been convicts. His own returns, as leading to this conclusion, are borne out by those of the Supreme Court and Court of Quarter Sessions. From a table furnished to him by MR KECK, the superintendent of the gaol at Darlinghurst, it appears that the numbers of convictions in those Courts, in the two years ending respectively in June, 1843, and June, 1844, were as follow:—

Court convictions years ending June 1843 and June 1844  

    This table confirms the CHIEF COMMISSIONER in both his opinions —that crime has been on the decrease, and that not less than two-thirds of the offenders are or have been convicts. Indeed MR KECK'S figures show a still larger proportion of this class, being very nearly three-fourths. They show also a decrease in the sum total of convictions approaching to nine per cent.

    Before we proceed to notice MR MILE'S own tables, we must premise that they do not include offences committed by convicts, this class of offenders being dealt with exclusively by the Bench at Hyde Park Barracks; neither do they include summons cases.

    The first return is of the number of persons apprehended by the Sydney Police during the first five months of the respective years, 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844. This fragment of a year was taken in order that the analysis might be brought down to the latest date at the time when MR MILES was examined.

    Here we have a decrease of crime in the year 1842 to the extent of no less that 2,235 cases, or 16½ per cent; and in 1844 of 791 cases, or nearly 28 per cent. The cases of the first five months of the year 1844 show a decrease on those of the corresponding period of 1841, to the large extent of 3,585, or nearly 64 per cent. This decrease accrues almost entirely in the second class of offences, those involving fines, which were as follow:—

Decreased Sydney crimes, 1841-1844  

    The great diminution in the number of assaults on police, being from 421 in the first year to 64 in the fourth, may, we presume, be fairly attributed to the improved tactics introduced into the corps by the present COMMISSIONER. The decrease of drunkards appears immense, being 3,007 in the three years, or 77½ per cent; but we must remember MR MILES' remark, that he had caused a less rigorous system to be observed by the  constabulary in the apprehension of drunkards than had prevailed under his predecessors.

    The other class of offences, which includes the more weighty crimes, exhibits a total decrease in the last year as compared with the first of only 19; whilst in some of the worst crimes in the catalogue there appears to have been an increase.

Decreased Sydney, second-class crimes, 1841-1844