North Yorkshire Police say the county continues to have the lowest crime rate in the country despite a 12 per cent rise in recorded offences — including a sharp 26 per cent increase in violent crime.
New figures show there were a total of 47,368 crimes in North Yorkshire during the 12-month period, giving a crime rate of 57.5 per 1,000 of the population.
This is the lowest nationally, however it is an increase on last year’s figures.
The figures were confirmed in the Office of National Statistics’ (ONS) “Crime in England and Wales: year ending September 2019” bulletin, published this week.
Broken down into the main crime categories, the ONS figures for North Yorkshire show:
- Vehicle offences has decreased by 9% (2,263 in total)
- Bicycle theft has decreased by 3% (1,145 in total)
- Drug offences have decreased by 1% (1,570 in total)
- Violence against the person has increased 26% (16,056 in total) broken down into:
- Homicide remains unchanged (3 in total)
- Violence with injury has increased 14% (6,067 in total)
- Violence without injury has increased 24% (6,379 in total)
- Stalking and harassment has increased 58% (3,592 in total)
- Death or serious injury – unlawful driving remains unchanged (15 in total)
- Sexual offences have increased by 10% (1,999 in total)
- Robbery has increased by 20% (235 in total)
- Theft offences has increased by 2% (17,353 in total) broken down into:
- Burglary has increased by 10% (4,070 in total, of which 2,521 are recorded as residential burglaries and 1,549 are recorded as non-residential burglaries).
- Theft from the person has increased by 8% (508 in total)
- Shoplifting has increased by 2% (4,620 in total)
- All other theft offences have increased by 4% (4,747 in total)
- Criminal damage and arson has increased by 1% (6,020 in total)
- Possession of weapons offences has increased by 7% (317 in total)
- Public order offences have increased by 44% (2,845 in total)
- Miscellaneous crimes against society have increased by 28% (973 in total)
Chief Constable Lisa Winward, North Yorkshire Police said: “Today’s figures show that despite a 12% rise in recorded offences in North Yorkshire, our county remains the safest place in the country per 1,000 of the population.
“Our ongoing piece of work to improve how we record crime, and also detect and investigate offences, naturally influences the county’s crime levels however this has been a top priority for the force to ensure victims continue to feel confident about reporting offences to us.
“My thanks go to each and every one of our officers, staff and volunteers for their continuous hard work, our partners whose role is vital in helping us protect people, and members of the public for their support.
“Despite our national position, we are not complacent and our focus is on improving early intervention and prevention across the service to reduce harm in our communities.”
Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said: “North Yorkshire remains the safest place in England and I want to thank the hard-working police officers and staff whose dedication and commitment ensures that continues to be the case.
“Nevertheless, we are continuing to see higher than average increases in crimes being recorded across the county.
“There are different reasons for this – our continued focus on improving how offences are recorded inevitably means percentage increases can look dramatic.
“This is important though because we can only fight crime in the right places and the right ways by knowing the problem we are facing. North Yorkshire Police is getting much better at that, but there is always more to do.
“This does not account for all the increase though, and it is important we all recognise that. Any rise is concerning, and I will be asking the Chief Constable to ensure she is confident her plans address the challenges we are facing.
“I am particularly concerned about the rise in violent crime as this is the sort of offence which causes huge worry in communities across North Yorkshire.”
For more information about the latest crime figures, please go to the Office of National Statistics website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/crimeinenglandandwalesyearendingseptember2019
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