Overall crime is down by 15% across the Gwent force area – the largest drop in England and Wales, latest figures suggest.
The latest Home Office statistics, released on July 19, cover the period of March 2011 to March 2012 and shows that 38,879 crimes were committed. During the same period 12 months before, the figure was 45,593.
Gwent Police Assistant Chief Constable Simon Prince said: “The figures released today are once again a ringing endorsement of our flexible and innovative approach to tackling crime, and the work we undertake with partners to prevent crime.
“Residents must also take credit for this continued drop, with people doing more to improve their own personal security, and taking on board crime prevention advice provided by us and our partners.”
A breakdown of the figures reveals
- Robbery was down by 42% or 93 fewer victims
- Burglary was down by 24% or 1,654 fewer instances
- Vehicle crime was down by 27% or 1,659 fewer instances
- Criminal damage was down by 18% or 1,659 fewer instances
- Violence against the person was down by 13% or 1,043 incidents
Drug offences rose by 21% and sexual offences rose by 1%. Gwent Police said the drug rise showed it was tackling the problem with more arrests and that more people were coming forward to report historical cases of sexual offences.
Antisocial behaviour fell from 54,321 cases in 2010/11 to 36,882 in 2011/12.
ACC Prince added: “These figures show that working with the community and our partners we are succeeding in driving down the problem of anti social behaviour. Every Gwent resident has the right to feel safe, and be safe, in their community and we will continue to work closely with other agencies to help improve the quality of life of our residents.
“Given the difficult economic backdrop I’m very proud of hard work and effort put in by our staff and officers, who continue to provide the public with an excellent service.”
Chair of the Police Authority Cilla Davies commented: “On behalf of the Police Authority I must congratulate our officers and staff for continuing to drive down crime and anti social behaviour. Gwent Police has now earned a reputation as one of the best performing Forces in England and Wales and most of this is down to the hard work and dedication of our officers and staff.
“There are obviously many difficult challenges ahead, and we acknowledge that we will have to do more with less in the future. However the Police Authority will continue to challenge the Chief Constable and her team to improve performance and continue to provide the public with the excellent service it deserves.”