Police swoop on crack den after violent crime surges
VIOLENT crime is returning to prelockdown levels, figures reveal.
Police recorded 133,864 offences in May, up 13 per cent from April.
And chiefs warned during the lockdown that such crimes would surge again once bars and pubs reopened.
It also emerged yesterday that a crackdown on drug dealers caused a spike in recorded offences through April and May.
The Office for National Statistics figures came as 14 men suspected of being drug gang members, aged 18 to 57, were arrested in dawn raids at addresses in north London yesterday.
Met officers seized heroin and crack with an estimated street value of £25,000, plus shotgun shells, 9mm ammunition and at least £4,000 cash.
Figures show drug crimes were up 22 per cent in April to 16,570 and 44 per cent in May to 20,687, compared with 13,535 and 14,343 for the respective months last year.
Overall, crime in England and Wales fell by almost a third in the first two full months of lockdown, driven in the main by drops in reported thefts and burglary.
Police-recorded crime during the lockdown was 25 per cent lower in April at 354,334 and 20 per cent lower in May at 398,049 compared with the same period in 2019.
In particular, theft fell to almost half the level recorded the previous year. There were 80,789 reported offences in April and 86,414 in May, compared with 153,663 and 157,215 respectively in 2019.
Che Donald, national vice-chair of the Police Federation, said: “Overall, the figures appear very positive. But we must take into account businesses were shut and members of the public were largely at home for a lengthy period during lockdown.
“As such, shoplifting offences and other acquisitive crimes were reduced as a result, so it is only common sense that crime is down. We must not be
Arrest... suspect is led away after dawn swoop in north London targeting drugs gang ‘elders’ Abuse
lulled into a false sense of security, as the figures will inevitably rise again.”
But Diana Fawcett, chief executive of independent charity Victim Support, added: “While some crimes reduced during lockdown, people contacting us for help as a result of other crimes such as domestic abuse, sexual violence, hate crime, fraud and antisocial behaviour increased as lockdown eased.
“While official statistics show there was a fall in reported crime during the pandemic, this does not mean that crime or the impact it has on people had gone away.”