Crime levels - The Herefordshire Partnership

Crime levels

It is important to monitor total numbers of recorded crime in Herefordshire to see if overall crime is increasing or decreasing, these figures however are not suitable for comparison with other areas as numbers of crimes will depend on a variety of factors such as population size. Overall numbers of crime are given for the Hereford division of West Mercia Constabulary, the boundary of which matches the Herefordshire county boundary.

As part of the Home Office's Public Service Agreement aim to reduce crime, Herefordshire Community Safety and Drugs Partnership, in negotiation with Government Office West Midlands, set a target to reduce crime locally by 15% by 2008 from a baseline of 12,053 crimes in 2004-05.

In general, crime in Herefordshire has been falling over the reporting period, starting from 14,798 crimes during 2001-02 down to 11,206 during 2007-08, only 2006-07 saw an increase in crime (to 11,870 crimes). In both 2006-07 and 2007-08, crime levels were above target.

Chart 1. Total number of all recorded crimes in Herefordshire

Source: Herefordshire Community Safety and Drugs Partnership

British Crime Survey (BCS) comparator crimes allow us to make comparisons with elsewhere as this looks at ten specific crime types and they are presented per 1,000 population. These crimes are common assault (including on a Police Constable), wounding (serious and other), robbery of personal property, burglaries (dwelling), theft of or from a vehicle (including attempts), vehicle interference, theft of a cycle, theft from a person and criminal damage. West Mercia Constabulary consists of five divisions including Herefordshire, North and South Worcestershire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.

The total number of BCS crimes (per 1,000 population) for Herefordshire has been lower than that of the total for West Mercia Constabulary as shown in Chart 2. However, the trend over the past 3 years for Herefordshire has increased slightly (from 35 crimes per 1,000 population in 2004-05 to 36 in 2006-07), whereas West Mercia as a whole has decreased from 47 in 2004-05 to 41 in 2006-07.

Chart 2. Number of BCS comparator crimes per 1,000 population for Herefordshire and West Mercia Constabulary

Source: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office

Chart 3 shows recorded crime levels for six key offences per 1,000 population allowing comparisons to be made within Herefordshire over time and to trends across the West Mercia Constabulary police force area as a whole.

Chart 3. Number of recorded crimes for six key offences in Herefordshire and West Mercia Constabulary (per 1,000 population)

Source: Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office

Over the three years violence against the person offences remained consistently high for both Herefordshire and the West Mercia Constabulary (WMC) area, although in 2005-06 and 2006-07 Herefordshire's levels were similar to WMC rather than below as they were in 2004-05. There were also noticeable decreases between 2004-05 and 2005-06 for burglaries (dwelling), theft of and from vehicles; these decreases appeared to be similar in magnitude for both Herefordshire and WMC.