Chief Inspector: Crime is down in Southend (From Southend Standard)
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Chief Inspector: Crime is down in Southend
7:00am Wednesday 24th October 2012 in Echo News
A CHIEF inspector has insisted crime is down in Southend...despite shocking figures on a national police website.
The Echo revealed last week how police.uk website showed the town as having more violent crime than some major cities.
The figures showed there were 17.39 victims of violence per every 1,000 people between March 2011 and March 2012.
This compared with 13.88 in Birmingham - and 11.29 in Liverpool.
However Chief Insp Colwell said overall crime in Southend had, in fact, dropped steadily since 2007.
He said: “Violent crime is a wide category covering a multitude of offences such as harassment or a minor assault to the more rare incident of a serious assault.
At the end of the last reporting year Southend was 10th out of 15 when compared to similar areas and did see rises in this area around the summer period of 2011.
"Not surprisingly the busiest area is central Southend where we see a high density of residential properties, the night time economy and a large influx of visitors especially during the summer months.”
His own figures show there were 15,000 crimes in 2007 across the whole district - compared to 13,000 in 2012.
He also said Southend had 500 fewer crimes reported this year than at the same stage in 2011.
He added: “We daily check patterns of crime in the district in which determines where we patrol. “
Comments(8)
Nebs
says...
8:33am Wed 24 Oct 12
and in other news.....
Pope converts to Judaism
Crack Cocaine is good for your health, say leading doctors.
Government announce the recession is over.
fletch12107
says...
8:36am Wed 24 Oct 12
Rochford Rob
says...
8:48am Wed 24 Oct 12
Ian P wrote:Bang on the money. Just read the stories here - people threatened with guns, stabbed, burglaries, drug dealing, grafitti - the list is endless
I believe the headline should read "Reported Crime is Down in Southend". Unfortunately, many people do not report crimes on the basis that it is a waste of time as nothing will be done.
Yeah, of course it's down.
Down, my @rse.
Brunning999
says...
4:55pm Wed 24 Oct 12
The reason is simple :
a lack of confidence in police action
A complete lack of confidence in The Court system
Most Police Stations are either closed or open restricted times.
A greater reliability on dealing with crime themselves using street justice.
And finally on the Police side :
The Police have increased spending on Crime management departments so crimes are now managed and manipulated to reduce total amounts as a example 2 burglaries on an industrial estate in one night used to be crimed individually now it's a continuing offence 1 crime.
Criminal damage the same.
emcee
says...
5:15pm Wed 24 Oct 12
If everybody were to report EVERY cime (not forgetting to get a report number), regardless whether it is a pint of milk stolen or a mobile phone, then the police would have less spin to hide behind and the true crime figures will show up police incompetence.
Nebs
says...
8:59pm Wed 24 Oct 12
emcee wrote:One day one of the forces will realise that if they reported the true figures then it would look so bad that they would have money thrown at them from all directions.
It is times like this that I get angry, not at the chief inspector putting spin on the crime figures but at people who do not report crimes
If everybody were to report EVERY cime (not forgetting to get a report number), regardless whether it is a pint of milk stolen or a mobile phone, then the police would have less spin to hide behind and the true crime figures will show up police incompetence.
Seasider90
says...
9:54pm Wed 24 Oct 12
Ian P says...
7:35am Wed 24 Oct 12