Wiltshire bucks the trend in violent crime and remains the second safest county in England

A Home Office of a Crime Bulletin for the financial year April 2003 to March 2004 shows Wiltshire as a safe place to live. This publication include recorded crime and detection rate figures and data from the British Crime Survey (BCS). While acknowledging the national value of the BCS, it is important to note that this document does not provide detailed information at an individual Force level and is therefore limited when trying to analyse Wiltshire's perspective and concentrates on the recorded crime and detection rate data.

The Wiltshire figures contained within the bulletin are compared with April 2002 - March 2003, and show that Wiltshire Constabulary has bucked the national trend in violent crime and achieved a decrease in burglary, fraud, theft and handling, as well as a decrease overall in the number of recorded crimes. The results also show that the force has performed better then the national average throughout most of the categories.

The overall number of crimes recorded for Wiltshire has decreased from 44225 to 42956. This shows a decrease of 1269 crimes, which equates to a 3% decrease. The national figure of recorded crime shows an increase of 1%. The bulletin also shows that with regard to the number of crimes per population there is only one other English force with a lower figure, which means that Wiltshire is the second safest county in England in which to live and work. It has the number one safest county record compared to the region and the family of forces.

This is backed up with the overall detection rate for Wiltshire Constabulary being 28%, which is 5% higher than the national average of 23%, the highest in the region and third highest within the family of forces, both of which indicate a move up from last year.

Burglary figures show a decrease from 6242 to 5929, which is a drop of 5%. Although the national figure shows a decrease of 8%, Wiltshire Police shows a detection rate of 13%, which is equal to the national rate. The force continues to encourage the reporting of distraction burglaries and bogus caller incidents through its Litotes campaign, which accounts in part for the lower decrease.

Violent crime has decreased from 7313 to 7214, a decrease of 99 offences, or 1%, which is a good result when you take into account the national increase of 12%. Wiltshire's detection rate for this category is 59%, which is 12% higher than the national average of 47%. It also shows a 2% increase in detections compared to last year, while the national average fell 3% compared to last year.

The above category of recorded figures for England and Wales can be broken down into Violence Against the Person, with Wiltshire showing a decrease of 2%, although England and Wales are up by an average of 14%. Sexual Offences show Wiltshire as having an increase of 4%; however, this is 3% less than the average of England and Wales, which is up by 7%. Robbery shows a decrease of 2% (which is 8 offences), although England and Wales is down by 6%. We should also stress that we deal with a low volume of robberies, therefore any change impacts on the percentage.

Theft & Handling (which includes vehicle crime) has decreased from 17438 to16546, an decrease of 5%, which is a bigger drop than the national average of 4%. Wiltshire's detection rate of 19% is 4% higher than the national average of 15%, and a rise on last year, when we were 2% higher than the national average, which has dropped by 1% from 16%.

Fraud & Forgery has decreased by 4% from 2420 to 2326. The national figures have decreased by the same percentage. However, Wiltshire Constabulary's detection rates are still way above the national average at 45%, compared to the national figure of 26%. We continue to take a proactive media policy and this has helped to raise public awareness, which in turn m> eans that people are less likely to become victims.

Criminal Damage has risen from 9246 to 9446, an increase of 2%, but 7% less than the national figures, which show an increase of 9%. Wiltshire Constabulary's detection rate of 16% is 3% above the national average of 13%.

Drug offences show an increase of 8%, although nationally, there is no change. Last year saw a big drop however in Wiltshire, against a national increase, so a rise this year was to be expected and this actually reflects the proactivity of the organisation - the more work we do with drugs means there are more crimes, and if we do less work, this category falls. Therefore increased offences means increased police proactivity.

The force continues its excellent record of detection for drug offences, with a 95% detection rate, which is 2% higher than the national average and an increase of 3% year on year. The force continues to focus mainly on combating Class A drugs crime, rather than low-level offences. A notable example of this is Operation Defy, which took place last July and saw 3 dealers jailed for a total of 15 years for selling heroin and crack cocaine in Swindon.

Other notifiable offences show a decrease of 22%, while the national figure shows an increase of 2%. Wiltshire Constabulary's detection rate of 69% is up 11% on last year and up 2% on the national figure, which has dropped 2% Force Comparisons have been made within the Home Office bulletin, for both the region and the family of forces, for the number of offences per 000 population and overall detection rate %, as follows:

Area: Wiltshire - 70 and 28; Gloucestershire - 102 and 28; Avon & Somerset - 111 and 15; Dorset - 90 and 26. Hampshire - 100 and 23; Thames Valley - 100 and 23. England & Wales average - 113 and 23.

Family of forces: Wiltshire - 70 and 28; Gloucestershire - 102 and 28; West Mercia - 92 and 31; Warwickshire - 89 and 25; Cambridgeshire - 112 and 23; Suffolk - 80 and 33; Cheshire - 94 and 27; North Yorks - 95 and 28; England & Wales average - 113 and 23.

Of the annual crime figures, Assistant Chief Constable for Wiltshire, Peter Vaughan, pictured, said: 'Wiltshire Constabulary has a proud tradition of good performance and delivering a quality service to our communities. Whilst we appreciate that we can always do better, the crime figures for this period display the level of commitment from our staff and also the effectiveness of partnership working which has ensured that Wiltshire is the second safest county in England to live and work'.

'We remain committed to improvement and will focus our attention on making our area safer still. The fight against burglary, anti-social behaviour and serious drug crime are at the top of our list. We have worked hard in trying to remove the scourge of drugs from our streets and have used new legislation in relation to seizing cash and other assets to good effect and in one recent drugs operation we secured the conviction of three men dealing in heroin and crack cocaine for 15 years and recovered £20,000'.