15th January 2010
15th January 2010, Insp Chris Brown
LPU Commander's Report
First of all, may I begin my report by wishing everyone a very happy New Year.
GENERAL NEWS
I am again pleased to be able to tell you that 2009 ended on a good note with crime continuing to fall still further. I am looking forward to an excellent 2010. The highlights of last year were a 20% annual reduction of household burglaries, followed by a 14% reduction in vehicle crime, which, I am particularly pleased to report as we had put a lot of effort into reducing this type crime. There are very few areas of crime which have increased on the year to date figures, the most notable being shop lifting but this has only had a moderate increase. On the whole crime has reduced by more than 12%, which I am sure you will agree is an excellent result for our community. I do hope that we can build on this in 2010. Anti social behaviour is still high on our agenda and we are looking at improving the work that we are doing in this area.
CRIME
The crime figures that are published on crime mapping will show our excellent results during the previous month. It clearly shows burglaries not increasing to any significant degree on any area, most being an average or below average figure. We will be working hard in this area up until the end of March when the year end figures are produced. Looking at the crime mapping you will see that the vehicle crime has remained static for the time of year, with no increase for the area except for Ashby Castle ward which shows 3 extra crimes. As already mentioned our overall crime has reduced but due to the remaining relatively high numbers in Coalville we will be concentrating our resources in that area.
On a daily basis we look at where to put our resources. Over recent weeks it has been a different process as our crime hot spots have been targeted with good results. This is enabling us to turn our attention to policing medium crime areas which I hope will continue. The fact that we have had lower crime rates has also enabled us to put more resources in to targeting anti-social behaviour.
ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
Over recent weeks I have been in discussion with all partners and officers regarding a more concerted effort of partnership working and a more effective way of dealing with local concerns. From the research that we have done we appear to have 2 distinct issues. The first being behaviour which the person reporting believes is anti-social, but on investigation is proven to be a social activity. To illustrate my point, someone may report a large gathering of young people on a main road. On investigation we discover this is an organised educational trip. The second example would be where anti-social behaviour has taken place and someone has reported a young person swearing and passers-by. On investigation we have found this to correct and identified those responsible, we would have dealt with this by writing to the parent or guardian with an advice or warning letter or other firm action if appropriate. Both of these incidents are recorded on our systems as anti-social behaviour as this is how they were reported.
Let me ask you a question. Have I described to you in the above paragraph what anti-social behaviour is? I have spoken to a number of people recently about what their understanding of anti-social behaviour is. I thought I would take a few moments each month to discuss the different categories of anti-social behaviour but I would start this month with a general overview. In December there were a total of 383 reports of anti-social behaviour. Of these less than half related to rowdy and inconsiderate behaviour. So, what are the other categories? These are:
- Abandoned Vehicle
- Animal Related Problems
- Begging & Vagrancy
- Criminal Damage
- Drug related
- Littering/Drugs Paraphernalia
- Firework(s) related
- Hoax Calls to Emergency Server ices
- Inappropriate Vehicle Usage
- Malicious Communications
- Neighbour Disputes
- Noise Nuisance
- Prostitution related activity
- Rowdy & Inconsiderate Behaviour
- Street Drinking
- Trespass
I hope you will see from the list above that anti-social behaviour comes in a variety of forms, some of which may be a surprise to you. One point I might draw your attention to is that anti-social behaviour is not a record of how many problems we have had with our young people.
All our wards this month have shown an average number of ASB incidents except for Coalville and Ashby which have shown an increase and we will be concentrating our resources at resolving some of these issues. Please take a few minutes to complete our consultation questionnaire, this will enable us to concentrate on the things that matter to you. http://www.leics.police.uk/surveys/consultation/
JOINT ACTION GROUP (J.A.G.)
There was a meeting of the joint action group earlier this month where the following was discussed.
- Update on Coalville's anti-social behaviour and the current work undertaken
- Update on anti-social behaviour in Ashby and Measham and the current work undertaken
- Anti-social behaviour - the way forward for North West
- I.C.S.B. document (Inter Agency Community Safety Bureau) which details all categories of anti-social behaviour by Beat.
