Crime falls by over 6% in North Wales

North Wales Police has confirmed that overall crime in the region has fallen by more than 6%.

Since April 2012 internally collated performance figures show that overall crime has gone down by 6.3% with steady reductions across a range of offences.

Assistant Chief Constable Gareth Pritchard said: “There was some concern earlier in the summer that deployments of staff to the Olympic Games in London would damage our capability to reduce crime during this busy period. In reality that has not proved to have been a problem.

“One area of continuing concern is the level of violence and we are very focused in our action to reduce such behaviour. We are the sixth lowest area for knife crime as a proportion of serious crime in England and Wales and robbery is similarly low, but overall violence is a concern.”

The falling figures reflect the progress the Force making by working in partnership with organisations such as local councils to tackle some of the issues facing our communities.

This summer officers worked with Denbighshire County Council and Conwy County Council’s Licensing Departments to enforce the Licensing Act legislation. Regular test purchasing exercises have been carried out to reduce under age drinking in the area.

As a result two public houses in Rhyl and Rhos-on-Sea were served a notice to shut for 48 hours after selling alcohol to people under-age on two separate occasions within three months.

A force-wide vehicle crime initiative, which has seen thefts from motor vehicles fall by 6.5% so far this year, involves sending the registered keeper of vehicles, seen to have valuables on display, a letter and crime prevention advice.

Patrolling officers and colleagues from partner organisations identify vulnerable vehicles that have valuable items on display.

Under the slogan, “Leave it on show, expect it to go,” the campaign is aimed at reducing the number of thefts from vehicles.

Car parks which have been the subject of crime have been visited by Crime Reduction Officers and car park managers spoken to and crime advisory notices displayed.

Meanwhile action days have been held following consultation with residents and housing associations to reduce anti-social behaviour.

North Wales Police has also made progress with the way it deals with low level dissatisfaction expressed by members of the public. These types of complaint, whatever their route into the force; letter, e-mail, telephone or personal visit, are now dealt with centrally and immediately allocated to a local supervisor for resolution.

The figures show the number of non-domestic burglaries is down by 13.1% while domestic burglaries are down by 7.9%. Criminal damage and arson figures are down by 10.1% and robberies are down by 4.5%.

Assistant Chief Constable Pritchard, welcomed the reductions, but said there was always more to do.

He said; “We have been working with partners on joint schemes to help deal with local problems such as anti-social behaviour and theft from vehicles. This approach is now showing positive results.

“These latest performance figures show we are making steady progress in our drive to keep North Wales a safe place to live and work.

“It is good to see that crimes such as burglary are down, but we would urge people to continue to take simple security measures to keep their homes, business premises and vehicles safe.”