Crime down in Northants

21 January 2011, 14:17 | Updated: 21 January 2011, 14:25

Northamptonshire has seen an 11 per cent fall in crime, latest statistics released by the Home Office reveal.

The statistics show that in the 12 months to September 2010, compared with the previous 12 months, there were 6,265 less victims of crime in the county.

Assistant Chief Constable Martin Jelley has welcomed the news. He said: “The fall in recorded crime of 11 per cent up to September last year is heartening, and is due to the hard work of the officers, PCSOs and staff of Northamptonshire Police.

“In December, we actually recorded the lowest number of crimes since the National Crime Recording Standard was introduced almost ten years ago, including the lowest-ever volumes for robbery, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage and violence.

“While the sub-zero temperatures clearly encouraged some criminals to stay at home, it is an excellent result.

“We cannot be complacent though. The robbery figures are good but they are still higher than our Most Similar Force average so there is still a lot of hard work to be done in this area.

“Key to this will be maintaining the momentum that has been achieved with Operation Guardian and making sure we keep in the faces of our most prolific offenders.

“Our work on Operation Guardian is part of the reason that we have seen an increase in the number of drug offences in the county – we are proactively tackling this issue, discovering more drugs and so there is an increase in the number of offences.”

ACC Jelley added: “We have also seen an increase in the number of sex offences reported to us, but this can be attributed to an increased confidence in victim’s to report such incidents. Our own research shows that many of the sex offences that have been reported to us in the last year are of a historic nature, where the victim has just gained enough confidence to be able to report what happened to them.

“Violence against the person remains a concern. This is largely a result of incidents in our town centres on Friday and Saturday nights and I am confident that Operation Nightsafe will deal with that very robustly in the months ahead.

“All in all a very promising picture, not least the fact that British Crime Survey data also shows that the risk of being a victim of crime in Northamptonshire remains at a 30-year low.”

Between September 2008 and September 2009, 58,258 crimes were recorded in Northamptonshire.

Between September 2009 and September 2010, 51,993 crimes were recorded in Northamptonshire.