Figures released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research last week revealed 99 reports of sexual assault were made to Port police in 2020, up from 94 the year before and 62 in 2018, reflecting a 6.5 per cent reporting increase in the past five years.

"It's not good to see an increase in reports of sexual assault but we correlate this increase with the fact that people are now more comfortable to report that they have been assaulted," Port Stephens-Hunter Police District's crime manager, Detective Inspector Ranald Urquhart, said.

"We do receive a lot of historic child sexual assault reports. That is, adults who have been assaulted when they were children who are now coming in and reporting it. I personally review all sexual assault reports that come in each month, looking for patterns or any connections."

The Port is not alone in seeing rates of sexual assault rise. The number of reported sexual assaults in the Hunter Region has risen about 10 per cent a year from 577 five years ago.

Detective Inspector Urquhart said in the past 18 months, police have worked to improve the way the force handles sexual assault reports.

"There has been an emphasis on looking at how we take reports, how we respond to victims, looking at the process in getting victims from the point of reporting an assault to court if that is the way they want to go," he said. "We would rather them come in and make the report, even if they're not sure what they want to do now, so when they do know we can proceed."

Fears early in 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic would lead to a spike in domestic and family violence did not eventuate in Port Stephens. Police received 23 less reports (356 in total) of domestic violence-related assault in 2020 than the year before.

The COVID-19 lockdown in March and April 2020, when residents were told to stay home and many shops and venues were closed, led to a significant drop in break and enter offences, theft and alcohol-related violence.

There were 90 less break and enters to Port homes in 2020 than the year before, reflecting a 41.1 per cent drop in this type of crime. There was was also less reports for break and enters to non-dwellings, motor vehicle theft, stealing from a motor vehicle, steal from a retail store and steal from a dwelling. However, crime rates for drug possession surged 110 per cent and bail breaches 46.6 per cent in the 24 months to December 2020.

Detective Inspector Urquhart said these figures reflected the work of officers in proactively targeting these offences.

"When we have our police out and about, whether it's doing licensed premises inspections or proactively targeting local offenders, even doing patrols late at night, that puts police in a position where they're more likely to find people with drugs," Detective Inspector Urquhart said of the surge in drug possession rates.

"We do a lot of bail compliance checks on our high risk offenders making sure they're abiding by their bail conditions and if they're not, they get a breach. That, again, is part of our proactivity in targeting our high risk offenders and to try and minimise their opportunities to commit offences."

BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said the social upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year had interrupted typical crime patterns across NSW.

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