Ticknall Life, Derbyshire

Derbyshire Constabulary has announced that crime levels in the county have fallen for the eighth year running.

Crime overall reduced from 68,005 in 2009/10 to 65,884 in 2010/11 meaning there were more than 2,000 fewer victims this year compared to last year.

Compared to 2002/03, when National Crime Recording Standards were introduced across the country, there are 37,000 fewer victims of crime, an overall reduction of 36 per cent.

The end of year figures also saw domestic burglary reduced by two per cent, vehicle crime by 16 per cent and criminal damage by 12 per cent. Anti-social behaviour incidents were reduced by seven per cent. Violent crime rose by four per cent.

Chief Constable Mick Creedon said: “It’s a fantastic achievement to have recorded an eighth year in a row of crime reductions.

“I must pay tribute to the commitment, dedication and hard work of all our officers and staff. Once again they have managed to achieve a reduction.

“It’s also important to recognise that the police are only one part of the fight against crime – numerous partner agencies across the city and county make a huge contribution but perhaps most important is the work done by local communities which suffer from crime but can often make the longest lasting difference by standing up and challenging unacceptable behaviour.

“Most of all we’re extremely pleased that we have even fewer victims of crime - more than 37,000 in the last eight years. When you have achieved the reduction we have over eight years it gets harder and harder to be successful.

“As we know the Government scrapped all of the various targets that were imposed on the police and replaced it with one single target of reducing crime.

“Providing the politicians understand the complexity of crime and the fact some increases are good and result from our proactive activity, I think that was the right thing to do and I wouldn’t want to get involved in setting local targets in their place as been mooted in some quarters.

“There needs to be a distinction between crime reduction and crime prevention. When an officer stop-searches someone and recovers a knife that is a potentially serious crime they have intervened in and stopped from escalating but a crime is recorded.

“When we arrest someone who is causing public disorder and stop a fight developing, again a crime is recorded, as it is when we act on intelligence and carry out a drugs raid or when we work for weeks to get the confidence of a victim to report multiple offending against themselves over a historical period.

“Simplistically, not all the crimes we record are the result of people being a victim at that moment, but clearly that is the sort of action the public want us to carry. There needs to be recognition that many crimes are generated by pro-active police work.”

The Positive Outcome Rate has risen from 29.1 per cent in 2009/10 to 33.6 per cent in 2010/11.
Positive outcomes include sanction detections and Restorative Justice resolutions and represent those crimes where an offender has been identified and the crime solved to the satisfaction of the victim.

Mr Creedon added: “I am a real believer in Restorative Justice as one of the methods of holding offenders to account for their criminal actions, but for the majority the route is still through to the criminal courts.

“Restorative Justice allows officers to use their professional judgement and importantly gives the victim a say and an input in how their crime is resolved.

“In the last two years nearly 10,000 crimes have been dealt in this manner and the continued feedback we are receiving is that it is what the public want.”