Police numbers fall – and crime is up in South Yorkshire

CRIME is up by 9% in South Yorkshire as police numbers continue to fall.

There has been a 47% increase in violence against the person without injury and vehicle offences have gone up by 15%. There has also been a rise in sexual offences, 18%, and possession of offensive weapons.

T/Assistant Chief Constable Jason Harwin said: “Crime has risen, on average, across the country by 9%, and even though there has been an increase in certain crime types in South Yorkshire, we have continued to drive down other crime levels in key areas during a significantly challenging time in the way the Force operates as we try to make significant savings.

“I hope that the residents of South Yorkshire can feel reassured by these figures, in particularly the fall in the number of burglary and robbery offences, two highly traumatic and intrusive crimes, and that the rise in crime in our county isn’t at odds with the national average, and is in fact lower in certain crime types.

“While violent crime has seen the most significant increase, our recording of these types of offences has both changed and improved. We are capturing incidents from a wider range of locations including prisons and schools, which allows us to better understand and respond to the problem.

“The hard work of our officers, along with a number of campaigns around crime prevention and targeted operations, has helped to bring offenders to justice and we hope this has had a positive impact on our communities and I want to offer my reassurance that this will continue.”

Drugs offences, burglaries and robberies have seen the most significant reduction, with a 23% drop in drugs related crimes, house burglaries going down by 12% and robberies reducing by 6%.