Crime across South Wales continues to fall significantly, according to today’s report published by the Home Office.
The report highlights levels of recorded crime across Wales and England for the 12 months up to December 2009, and shows that overall, South Wales Police is rated as the sixth best performing force nationally, and the number one force in Wales, for reducing crime.
On average there were 38 fewer victims of crime every day when compared to the same period the year before.
Crime types across the board were reduced. Violent crime was cut by 10.5 per cent meaning there were over 2500 fewer victims; vehicle crime, including thefts of and from vehicles, reduced collectively by 4,420 offences; dwelling burglaries were reduced by 1,108 offences; and there were 175 fewer victims of sexual offences.
Chief Constable Peter Vaughan said: “This is excellent news for South Wales Police and the communities we serve. We have played a significant role – along with our partners and the public in cutting crime to levels which are unprecedented in the region since the introduction of National Crime Recording Standards in April 2002.
“I am also delighted by the fact that our crime detection rates are continuing to increase across the spectrum of crime and particularly in some of the more serious offences categories such as robbery, sexual offences, and violence against the person. This reflects our professional approach to crime investigation against a backdrop of reducing crime.”
With crime rates decreasing, and detection rates increasing, the continuing challenge for South Wales Police is to address public perception.
Chief Constable Peter Vaughan said: “The fact that public perception and confidence in the police does not reflect performance in some of the areas where we can evidence significant success, is frustrating, and a challenge for us all.
“It places huge and continued importance on effective public engagement for our organisation and for our partners. We are committed to positive change, and by that I mean that our priority is finding out exactly what the needs and the expectations of our communities are upon the service, and how best to meet them. This premise, of putting the public at the centre of everything we do, underpins our plans for the next five years.
“We need to maximise accessibility to the service as we want as many people as possible to engage with us at a local level and to utilise the opportunities presented to them though our consultation activities such as PACT meetings and street surgeries. This will help ensure our neighbourhood teams set the policing priorities that matter most. We are also looking at innovative ways of reporting back to those people to highlight what we have done in their area to tackle the issues raised.
“We are, and will continue to work very hard with our partners to ensure our communities feel safe and have confidence in the service we deliver,” added Mr Vaughan.
