News

Crime levels are dropping significantly and confidence in the service provided by Kent Police is going up, according to the latest available figures.

The number of offenders brought to justice and the number of offences detected and dealt with by police is also rising.

Home Office statistics published on 17 July show there were 15,133 fewer crimes in Kent between April 2007 and March 2008 compared to the previous year - an overall fall of 10.3 per cent.

The total number of crimes recorded fell from 146,402 to 131,269. Kent Police officers made 50,978 arrests.

Commenting on the figures, Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge said: 'These latest crime figures are good news and make us more determined to improve our performance levels even further.

'It is encouraging that the number of crimes being committed continues to fall even now and we will work hard to continue to improve the reductions we've seen in the last year.'

Kent Police is seeing success in reducing crime in virtually all areas of policing - with violent crime, criminal damage, burglary and vehicle crime figures all falling markedly. Drugs offences did rise, but this was expected because of the work done by officers to destroy networks.

The sanction detection rate increased to 27.5 per cent (up 2.8 per cent). These are offences dealt with by charge, caution, penalty notice or formal warning.

Meanwhile 777 more offences were brought to justice - up 2.1 per cent to 38,214 crimes.

The chances of being a victim of crime are less, with a lower crime rate now of 80 offences to every 1,000 of population.

It was expected that the number of drugs offences recorded would increase year on year (up 18.4 per cent or 548 offences to 3,524 crimes). Important work by drugs officers and area police teams has helped disrupt and destroy drugs networks. And neighbourhood officers are getting information from the communities where they work that is also helping to uncover drug crime.

ACC Beautridge added: 'The commitment of Kent Police, its officers and staff and the help we receive from the public have all contributed towards this excellent achievement in tackling and reducing crime.

'Our neighbourhood policing teams have formed close relationships with the communities they are now protecting and serving, enabling officers to deal with local crime issues more easily.

'Add into that the dedicated intelligence and operational work done by our officers both from headquarters and on area and the combined effect is a significant fall in crime in nearly every area.'

All incidents of violent crime - which includes violence against people, sexual offences and robbery - fell by 2,701 offences (8.8 per cent) to 28,036 crimes.

The most serious crimes of violence dropped by nearly a quarter (23.3 per cent) or 149 offences, while there were 147 fewer wounding offences - a similar fall at 24.4 per cent. Incidents of robbery dropped by 18 per cent, a decrease of 252 offences.

Common assault offences went up by 62 (0.9 per cent). But there were 86 fewer sex offences (a 4.8 per cent fall) and harassment dropped by 666 offences (a 15.3 per cent difference).

There were 77 fewer reports of hate crime (1,150 recorded offences). Similarly, racially or religiously aggravated crimes fell by the same number.

The number of incidents of criminal damage fell by 5,402 offences to 31,425 crimes, a drop of 14.7 per cent.

Burglary dropped markedly again - and people in the county are now more than 40 per cent less likely to suffer this crime than 10 years ago. The figure fell by 16.5 per cent, a drop of 1,198 burglaries.

Vehicle crime also fell. There were 2,834 fewer crimes (a drop of 14.5 per cent) showing that in the last 10 years, theft of and from vehicles has halved.

Mr Beautridge continued: 'During this period we've also seen 34 fewer children killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions - a reduction of 40 per cent.'

There were 11 fewer firearms offences recorded during this statistical period. Firearms offences are uncommon in Kent, with an average of seven offences recorded each month. In the April 2007 to March 2008 period there were 82 offences recorded (down by 11.8 per cent).

Kent Police's barometer check of people's perceptions of the force - the Kent Crime and Victimisation Survey - shows confidence increasing and communities becoming less worried about crime generally.