Latest figures show Suffolk working hard to keep county safe

Suffolk remains one of the safest counties despite seeing a small rise in the number of recorded crime when comparing figures year on year.

In line with national trends the latest crime figures show that the county saw a 2.8% increase in recorded crime when comparing figures year on year.

Out of the 280,000 calls taken in 2016/17, around 46,000 were recorded as crimes in the past financial year.

Drug offences (1,214 recorded – down 15% on the previous year) burglary (3,721 recorded – down 7%) and criminal damage (6,570 recorded – down 3%) were among the offences that saw a drop in the numbers, as did sexual offences which saw a drop of 5% to 1,673 recorded offences.

Offences that saw a rise in numbers recorded included robbery (294 recorded – up 21%) and violence against the person (14,388 – up 18%).

Deputy Chief Constable Steve Jupp said: “Most forces are seeing a rise in recorded crime so we are not alone in this fact, but the public can feel reassured that we remain amongst the safest places in the country.

“Ethical crime recording is an important part of day-to-day policing to ensure the public have trust and confidence in the service we provide. We are constantly reviewing our processes to ensure we are recording crime correctly as we respond to changes to the Home Office recording categories and in terms of demand of calls coming into the Contact and Control Room.

“Violence against the person is a broad category and as a consequence, the bulk of this rise can be attributed to the sub-category of harassment which saw a year on year rise of 62% to 3,203 offences.

“Although we have seen a rise in robbery figures it’s important to recognise that the numbers are still very low. The rise equates to one extra offence taking place per week.  We are working hard to tackle this area with proactive work to address youth gang crime, much of which is drug-related under Operation Velocity.

“I’d like to pay tribute to the staff in our CCR who do a remarkable job each day in fielding hundreds of calls from the public. I’d take this opportunity to remind the public who are facing a non-emergency situation to refer to the Constabulary website before calling 101. This offers a wide range of advice and signposts users to the correct agency for a number of commonly-asked questions including noisy neighbours and lost property.

“We continue to develop  effective and productive working relationships with our communities and partners who play a key role in supporting us, and of course thanks must go to everyone in the policing family for their continuing hard work and commitment.”

Tim Passmore, Police and Crime Commissioner said: “I am pleased that these latest crime figures show Suffolk remains one of the safest counties in the country to live, work, travel and invest.

“Our police officers and civilian staff work under tremendous pressure to keep us safe; responding to 280,000 calls is a huge challenge and I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for their dedication.

“Despite the small increase in crime numbers, it is reassuring to see that the numbers of recorded crime are down for drug offences, I know there has been a focus on this issue, particularly in Ipswich and I am pleased to see this targeted operation paying dividends.”