Violent crime up, overall crime down

THE overall crime rate in Wiltshire has dropped in the last year, while incidents of vehicle and violent crime have increased, according to new Home Office figures.

Wiltshire is eighth nationally for levels of overall crime, with a total of 36,137 crimes recorded.

There was a 17.4 per cent reduction in dwelling burglaries, compared to a national drop of 6.4 per cent, and there was a 2.8 per cent reduction in criminal damage.

Wiltshire Police has also maintained its position as having the lowest number of drug offences of any force in the country.

However, there has been an 8.9 per cent increase in vehicle crime and a 6.8 per cent rise in violent crime, compared to a 6.2 per cent national drop.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Hedley said: “Although the figures point to violent crime being on the increase in our area, it is important to stress that this is partly a result of a change in the way in which we have been recording this type of crime.”

He said violence in town centres has seen a slight reduction and more work is being done to tackle domestic violence.

British Crime Survey figures, which are also out this week, show that 64 per cent of people in Wiltshire believe that Wiltshire Police deal with local concerns, which is above the national average.

Comments(8)

Mystery Mike says...
12:15pm Tue 23 Oct 12

I'm so happy about this news, I could punch someone!

Grampie says...
12:59pm Tue 23 Oct 12

The advert for Police Commissioners in the article said "To find out who your local candidates are Click here"

I clicked, but there were no candidates.

We are getting to be a very nasty society, ruled by what somebody described as a nasty party.

When those who are less fortunate are pilloried by politicians and compassion becomes a dirty word when if comes to money, attitudes trickle down and violence towards others increases.

The Police Commissioners project is a stupid, expensive idea, drawn up on the back of a bill for a bottle of Bolly and will not result in any reduction in crime.

Mender says...
3:36am Wed 24 Oct 12

The news you write here is NOT TRUE.
When a crime is reported to the police it gets recorded as a crime REFERENCE NUMBER.
If the crime can be linked to evidence then it gets upgraded to a CRIME NUMBER.
The records are reflecting crime numbers and not crime reference numbers. This means if the police cannot detect the crime it goes unlisted in most instances.

c skelton says...
8:18am Thu 25 Oct 12

This is great news and a testament to the hard work of Wiltshire Police.

Colin Skelton
Independent candidate for PCC
www.skelton4wiltspcc
.co.uk

karlmarx says...
6:46pm Thu 25 Oct 12

You need to be very careful when figures are produced that give a contradictory appearance to reality Colin.
For example, take the latest inflation figures of 2.2%. Now, with the best will in the world and, trying different inputs and key strokes on my calculator there was no way I could get the 2.2% using the input data for the previous month.
Try it yourself....
gas up 11%
electricity up 9.5%
petrol up 3%
diesel up 4%
food up 4.9%
rent up 6%
Result? 6.4% every time. That's more than 3 times the 'official' inflation figures.

So, be very careful when using 'official' figures, they often contain a certain bias that has nothing to do with math.

reasonedhuman says...
4:20pm Mon 29 Oct 12

karlmarx wrote:
You need to be very careful when figures are produced that give a contradictory appearance to reality Colin.
For example, take the latest inflation figures of 2.2%. Now, with the best will in the world and, trying different inputs and key strokes on my calculator there was no way I could get the 2.2% using the input data for the previous month.
Try it yourself....
gas up 11%
electricity up 9.5%
petrol up 3%
diesel up 4%
food up 4.9%
rent up 6%
Result? 6.4% every time. That's more than 3 times the 'official' inflation figures.

So, be very careful when using 'official' figures, they often contain a certain bias that has nothing to do with math.
You seem to have forgotten that inflation figures are based on over 100,000 items rather than just your 6 that you mention.

As you quite rightly say, be careful with figures as they can be manipulated to suit the argument that you require ;)

karlmarx says...
7:03pm Mon 29 Oct 12

No I haven't. I studied how inflation rates were calculated at uni. If you expected to see a list of 1000 items with their current CPI/RPI class and weightings then dream on. You got the 6 latest increases in the items that cost UK families the most.
Incidentally you will find University fees in the basket. Correct me if I am wrong but, were the Tory party not responsible for trebling these fees? I see that anomaly is also adequately reflected in the inflation rate!

reasonedhuman says...
7:42pm Mon 29 Oct 12

karlmarx wrote:
No I haven't. I studied how inflation rates were calculated at uni. If you expected to see a list of 1000 items with their current CPI/RPI class and weightings then dream on. You got the 6 latest increases in the items that cost UK families the most.
Incidentally you will find University fees in the basket. Correct me if I am wrong but, were the Tory party not responsible for trebling these fees? I see that anomaly is also adequately reflected in the inflation rate!
I will correct you because you are wrong. The Tory's didn't treble tuition fees - they did treble the amount that Universities could charge for tuition fees - there is a subtle difference. The Universities DIDN'T and DON'T have to charge the maximum amount allowable for tuition fees, most choose to do so! But why let facts get in the way of Tory bashing?

Also if you studied statistics and inflation at university you will also be aware than many smaller items can outweigh few large items.

If you wish to take over from the highly internationally respected ONS then please feel free to offer your services.

click2find

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