Top cop outlines police priorities
Thames Valley Police has been focusing its resources on tackling two key priorities over the last year – knife crime and violence against women and girls.
The force released its latest crime and performance statistics spanning from April 1, 2023 to 31 March this year and, while Chief Constable Jason Hogg says there are aspects to be pleased about, there is still work to be done.
As a key priority, Ch Con Hogg said the force is facing some ‘real on-going challenges’ around sexual offences and violence against women and girls.
The current two-year backlog on cases coming to court puts pressure on the police to provide extra support to victims in the meantime, Ch Con Hogg explained.
But he drew attention to the fact the number of charges for rape offences have increased by 17.4 per cent, going from 121 in the same period from 2022 to 2023 to 142 over the last year.
Similarly, charges for other sexual offences have risen from 426 to 484 – a 13.6 per cent increase.
While there may be improvements in some areas, figures show that charges for stalking and harassment are down 10.9 per cent from 918 to 818 over the last year.
Ch Con Hogg said the numbers are ‘very small’, adding that the force had a dedicated stalking and harassment team which provides advice and guidance to officers leading these cases.
He added that cases such as that of Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped, raped and killed by London Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens have ‘impacted the trust and confidence of women in the police’.
But he added: “I want to work really really hard here in the Thames Valley to improve that trust and confidence in the approach that we make.”
Another of the force’s key priorities has been tackling knife crime and while figures show that incidents have reduced by 10.8 per cent, going from 1,239 to 1,105, the number of arrests have also gone from 859 to 755 – a 12.1 percent reduction.
Ch Con Hogg said the force has faced ‘real challenges’ with knife crime, particularly among young people over the last two years, but added he is delighted that numbers of incidents have been brought down.
“The recent focus on knife crime has been a priority for us and that has led to our homicide rate being cut almost in half,” he said.
The force has a number of initiatives to tackle knife crime including focusing resources by getting access to data from the NHS and health and social care to understand who is at greatest risk from knife crime and planning interventions around this.
Burglaries have been a big talking point in the area over the last year, and statistics seem to reflect this, with residential burglary crimes across the Thames Valley increasing by three per cent from 4,942 incidents in the same period in 2022-23 to 5,075.
Equally, burglaries from sheds and garages have also increased by seven percent from 3,342 the previous year to 3,579.
Personal robbery crimes, meaning incidents in which people’s items have been taken forcefully, have also risen from 1,022 to 1,088 – presenting a six per cent increase.
Ch Con Hogg said burglary and robbery crimes are almost at historic low levels but acknowledged that due to the force focusing its resources on knife crime and violence against women and girls, there have been ‘some slight increases’ in burglary and robbery incidents.
To tackle the rise, he said the force is making increases to priority crime teams who deal with burglary and robbery offences.
“Being a victim of burglary is terrible,” he said.
“It is a crime undoubtably that the public are really concerned about, so it is going to be an on-going focus for me this coming year.”
Statistics show that drug possession crimes have decreased by two per cent, going from 4,360 to 4,272, but drug trafficking has increased by 25.5 per cent from 1,332 crime to 1,671.