Police hand out 500 fines to the lockdown rebels
CRIME FIGURES SHOW MIXED PICTURE
HUMBERSIDE Police have issued more than 500 fines to coronavirus lockdown rule breakers since the first national shutdown.
Councillors on the Humberside Police and Crime Panel heard yesterday that 200 of those fixed penalty notices had been issued in January alone.
Paul Wainwright, assurances and statutory duties lead at the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office, told the panel more fines tended to be issued when restrictions got tougher.
Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter said the force was among those which had issued the lowest number of tickets in the country.
But he added numbers had “ramped up” since Christmas, as well as warning the court system faced a “major” backlog in cases due to coronavirus and earlier delays.
It comes as the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed overall crime excluding fraud from July to September dropped by 2 per cent in Humberside year on year.
The total number of crimes committed in the 12 months up to September 2020 was 92,139, with 25,420 taking place from July when restrictions were eased.
Overall crime dropped by 10 per cent between September 2019 and September 2020, but 25,420 offences from July to September was up from 19,654 recorded from April to June.
There were year on year falls in July to September 2020 of burglaries, down 20 per cent, robberies, 2 per cent, thefts, 29 per cent, and arson and criminal damage, 7 per cent.
But violence against the person was up by 8 per cent, stalking and harassment 38, sexual offences 14, drug offences 22, possession of weapons 9 and public order 41.
Mr Hunter said: “This area has been a high crime area for generations.
“That’s not down to the quality of policy, it’s down to deprivation which goes hand in hand with crime.
“We’re still lowering crime and antisocial behaviour in this area to a greater extent than other forces around the country are doing.
“But we can’t just be a standard bearer for good policing, we need to support it to attract investment so we can tackle deprivation.
“If Humberside is seen as a byword for deprivation then businesses will be reluctant to invest here, one of the things the force can do is improve the area’s reputation.”
Mr Hunter said the current court backlog was a concern particularly because less serious and more straightforward cases were being dealt with before ones involving gangs and organised crime.
He added backlogs in magistrates courts were dropping, but those in crown courts remained, with family court rooms being used to hold some criminal trials.
Mr Hunter said the force had not yet felt an impact from Brexit but added it still had plans to deal with lorry queues at Humberside ports if needed.
The commissioner said there were dangers the government’s recruitment drive for employing 20,000 new police officers nationally would come alongside a more target driven approach to crime, which could breed short-termism.