Central Ballarat has recorded 21 offences of assaulting police and emergency workers in the year ending June 30.
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Assaulting an emergency worker in Victoria can lead to a maximum of five years' jail.
Latest Crime Statistics Agency data shows the Ballarat Central data is an improvement on the previous financial year, when the postcode - which includes the troubled Little Bridge Street area - recorded 22 attacks.
In 2020-21 it was 19.
Police are confident the redevelopment of Bridge Mall - along with Operation Praesidium ("Guardian") - will make a difference to the CBD's overall crime data by the time the next round of figures are released in late December.
It comes after a man was charged with assaulting police - among other alleged offences - after March 20 incident at a Little Bridge Street bus shelter which onlookers captured on video.
Ballarat's next-worst blackspot for emergency personnel was the Alfredton postcode - with six assaults recorded in 2022-23 - a big jump on the single case reported the year before.
Wendouree recorded five (a drop from 11), while Soldiers Hill had three (compared to two), Mitchell Park also had two (up from zero) and Sebastopol saw two (another huge drop down from 12).
Redan saw one attack (up from none).
Some suburbs now appeared to have a clean slate - with no recorded assault offences against personnel.
They included Ballarat East (five in 2021-22), Delacombe (nine in 2021-22), Buninyong and Winter Valley (both had two assaults in 2021-22) - as well as Lake Wendouree and Eureka (one each in 2021-22).
The data does not indicate the specific roles of the victims - and the term 'authorised officers' could cover compliance personnel in anything from public transport to animal welfare, early childhood education and public health.
Safest shires
While Ballarat Central had 21, Bendigo's CBD saw a disturbing 27 attacks on personnel in the last year.
The Melton postcode recorded 17 - down from 25 the period before.
At the other end of the scale, the Golden Plains Shire appeared to be one of the safest places in the region to be an emergency worker - with no offences recorded last financial year - and just one at Bannockburn in 2021-22..
Pyrenees was another relatively assault-free area with one recorded in Beaufort in 2022-23 and another the year before.
![Police pack up on the final of the Ring of Steel on the Western Highway at Hopetoun Park in November 2020. Picture by Gabrielle Hodson. Police pack up on the final of the Ring of Steel on the Western Highway at Hopetoun Park in November 2020. Picture by Gabrielle Hodson.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/177877894/89b59b0f-5b03-4de9-abea-fd15128f2d9d.jpg/r0_31_556_347_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ring of Steel
The number of attacks on emergency workers in the Moorabool Shire saw a jump during the darkest days of the pandemic.
The Bacchus Marsh postcode recorded two offences last financial year, one the year before - but a whopping five in 2020-21.
Melbourne's 'Ring of Steel' was declared in mid-2020, with a police checkpoint on the Western Freeway at Hopetoun Park.
During the four months it was active, officers reported drive-offs, rammings, people hiding in car boots and more.
Darley saw two emergency worker attacks during the year ending June 30 (down from three the year before).
Clunes and Ararat down
Ararat saw a dramatic drop in emergency worker assaults - at four - compared to 10 the year before.
Nothing was reported in any other postcode in the council area, although Buangor saw one offence in 2021-22.
Clunes also saw a drop (one compared to three).
The Creswick, Daylesford and Trentham postcodes all recorded two assaults each in the latest data.
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