Arson rates on the rise in South West according to concerning figures in WA Police’s 2025 Crime Report

The release of the WA Police Force’s 2025 Crime Statistics Report has revealed a concerning rise in arson offences across the region. The annual report revealed 14,243 offences lodged across 64 South West suburbs in 2025, with drug offences ranking highest in the reporting at 1998 offences. While many of the statistics remained in line with previous years, there was a significant jump in arson reported, jumping from 64 cases in 2024 to 92 in 2025. While Department of Fire and Emergency Services South West Supt Matt Folini said the stats were concerning, he pointed to higher arrest rates as a likely cause of the inflated numbers. “Yes, the stats are concerning, and we are getting more deliberately lit fires, but the huge jump is a result of conviction rates, rather than fires lit,” he said. “We are working closer with WA Police than ever before which leads to a higher rate of arrest numbers.” Supt. Folini said the past two summer periods had identified an increase in suspicious or deliberately lit fires, putting a strain on resources. He issued a plea to the community for a collective effort to ensure fire safety. “We want to go to as minimum amount of fires as we can, for the sake of our staff and volunteers,” he said. “Small scrub fires aren’t always going to turn into big ones, but if we have firefighters at these little deliberately lit ones, we might not be able to get to big incidents.” Alongside the arson numbers, the report also showed Bunbury’s regulated weapons offences had doubled since 2024, while sexual offences had more than halved. Drug offences dropped in Margaret River, though breaches of violence restraining orders more than tripled from 20 to 62. In Busselton, fraud and related offences continued to grow from 32 in 2023, 140 in 2024 now cracking 311 in 2025, while arson jumped from three to 11 cases. In Manjimup and Bridgetown, breaches of restraining orders doubled from 38 to 77 but drug offences dropped off. Harvey remained mostly consistent with 2024’s numbers, though the region had a jump in threatening behaviour towards family members from three in 2024 to 16. South West Police District Supt Paul Van Noort said WA Police would do everything to ensure the community was kept safe. “We take all family violence related complaints very seriously,” he said. “We continue to encourage people to report any acts of family related violence. “We want people to feel confident they can approach the police and we continue to encourage them to report any incidents. “Community trust is vital, and WA Police will continue to do everything we can to ensure members of the community feel safe.”