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Official: Lincolnshire is still one of the safest places to live

Lincolnshire continues to be one of the safest Counties in the country according to national crime statistics released by the Home Office.

Deputy Chief Constable, Neil Rhodes says the Force knew that significant reductions had been made in areas of acquisitive and violent crime. “However, now that we can make comparison with other Force areas, it just shows what a positive effect we are having on crime reduction,” he says.  

Mr Rhodes cites the ongoing activity under the banner of  ‘Operation Fusion’ – which specifically targets serious acquisitive crime such as burglary, robbery and vehicle crime - as reaping ‘exceptional’ benefits. “We also launched our campaign against violence, ‘Operation Nova’ (say NO to Violence and Abuse) at New Year and, alongside ‘Operation Fusion’ will be making major efforts to reduce violence and abuse including domestic abuse over the coming year,” he said.

“These excellent results are because of the efforts of everyone in the Force,” he says.  “ - And I mean everyone – just one of the initiatives of ‘Operation Fusion’ earlier in 2009 involved more than 100 of our support staff visiting homes, speaking personally to householders and leaflet-dropping crime prevention advice. Because of this and other ongoing initiatives we believe people are beginning to take more care of their own property and this is being reflected in the statistics. We can’t reduce crime by ourselves – it’s a partnership and combined effort which achieves good results like these,” he says.

The national statistic for violence shows a 4% reduction in the category of violence against the person involving injury. “Although Lincolnshire figures increased by about 200 offences – the equivalent of a 7.5% rise – in performance terms, the County is 9^th nationally and 1^st in the East Midlands region.

Robbery in the County increased by about 25 offences but against a national overall statistic of a 2.6% reduction the Force is still the 7^th best performing nationally and the top performer in the region.

Violence against the person with no injury has shown a 10.1% reduction in the County and a 4.2% reduction nationally.

“So we compare very favourably with the national and regional figures, says Mr Rhodes but what people living in Lincolnshire should know is that we have seen significant reductions in burglary of people’s homes (167 fewer houses broken into – a 9% reduction) and vehicle crime (258 fewer cases – an 8% reduction).”

The national statistics released by the Home Office show that the comparisons with other forces are generally very positive. “Of the fifteen offence-groups in their table (which cover violent and acquisitive crime, criminal damage and drugs) Lincolnshire is in the top ten nationally for three of those (Robbery, Violence against the Person and vehicle crime) and the top half or higher in another eleven categories.”

Lincolnshire also showed significant reductions in the rate of homicide (down 55%) which placed the Force 15^th nationally and 3^rd regionally and Firearms offences which, since 2004/05 have reduced by 82% placing the County Force 4^th nationally and 1^st in the Region.

The documents released today also cover the results of the British Crime Survey (BCS). This is carried out nationally by the Home Office and in Lincolnshire involves the random selection of 1000 households to answer questions about the perception of crime and combined police and local authority performance.

In contrast to the Government’s concern nationally that anti-social behaviour is the major public concern, the BCS survey in Lincolnshire showed that only 10% of people had concern about the issue – which put Lincolnshire 6^th nationally and 1^st in the region.

Mr Rhodes said the Force was still working hard to improve the perception people had that the Force was dealing with local concerns.  “Although this has improved by 5% since the last statistics were released, the BCS survey shows that 50% of people agreed that we were dealing with what concerned them. Our aim is much higher than that,” he said.

This statistic contrasts sharply with the Force’s own independently compiled survey (required by the Home Office and part-funded by them) and covering 4,500 Lincolnshire residents. “This shows that 64% of people believe we are dealing with local issues that concern them and that 78% have confidence in the policing of their local area,” he said.

“One further interesting statistic is that 20% of people surveyed replied, ‘don’t know’ to whether the police and local council were dealing with local concerns and a third of those said they had replied ‘don’t know’ because there were absolutely no issues to be dealt with so could not form an opinion,” said Mr Rhodes.

“All that adds up to a positive and encouraging report for Lincolnshire and the people we serve,” said Mr Rhodes. “As always though we will not be complacent; we will continue to strive for improvement and can confidently assure people living in the County they are in one of the safest places in the Country.”

Article Published: 21/01/2010

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