Police force ‘committed’ to community crime fight
AREA SEES NEIGHBOURHOOD CRIME INCIDENTS HIT A TWO-YEAR HIGH
NEIGHBOURHOOD crime in the Cleveland force area recently hit its highest level for the past two years, figures show.
During the last quarter of 2021/22 (January to March) there were 1,966 recorded incidents in this category, a two-year peak. Neighbourhood crime encompasses residential burglary and vehicle crime, along with theft from a person and robbery.
Year-on-year comparisons show that in 2020/21 there were 6,568 neighbourhood crimes recorded by Cleveland Police, which rose to 7,517 in 2021/22, a 14.4% increase.
There was a large increase in vehicle crime between January and March, compared to the previous quarter – up from 879 to 1,011 incidents.
Vehicle crime accounted for more than half (50.7%) of all recorded neighbourhood crime over the three month period, up 24% on the figure recorded 12 months previously.
Burglaries also continue to be a concern and while there was a reduction in recorded incidents between quarter two and quarter four in 2021/22 (from 869 to 741), the burglary rate per 1,000 population is still higher in the Cleveland force area than the national rate.
At a recent meeting of the Cleveland Police and Crime Panel, Stockton councillor Steve Nelson questioned whether police were responding to burglaries properly.
He asked Cleveland Police and
Crime Commissioner Steve Turner: “There is a public perception that burglaries aren’t being responded to more than just an officer taking the information that a house has been burgled.
“Is that perception accurate?” Mr Turner said: “I have challenged the force over burglaries and how they are handling them. I haven’t been completely convinced with the answers given.”
In May the Conservative PCC chose neighbourhood crime as the focus of a scrutiny meeting with Cleveland Police representatives in which the force is regularly asked to present information to demonstrate how it is delivering against Mr Turner’s Police and Crime Plan, a strategic blueprint for tackling crime.
He said he was assured that the force understood the scale and required response that was needed for local communities plagued by crime, but was “less assured about the force’s targets and how they would be achieved”.
Middlesbrough Councillor David Coupe told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the force was under-staffed and in his ward neighbourhood police teams were not as prominent as they previously were.
He said: “They do the best they can with limited resources.
“I also would question whether every event that is rung in [by members of the public] is properly recorded.”
In November 2019 Cleveland Police launched a consultation on neighbourhood policing seeking to find out what local people saw as priorities for the area in which they live.
This followed criticism from inspectors who said not enough resources were being allocated to this area of policing and highlighted the fact that officers carrying out crime prevention work in local neighbourhoods lacked an understanding of the priorities that needed tackling.
In February 2020 it was announced that a new strategy was being put in place that would see further investment in neighbourhood policing with the addition of more resources to gather community intelligence and problem solve, along with more officers taking up roles on local beats.
A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police told the LDRS that it “remained committed to neighbourhood policing and recognised the positive impact it has within our communities”.
She said: “There are many factors which drive crime trends within our force area.
“Our neighbourhood teams take a problem solving approach, working closely with partners to both address the causes of crime and to disrupt and deter criminals.
“We are running proactive campaigns where our teams respond to crime data and tackle areas identified as hot spots for crimes such as robbery, which have a significant impact on victims.”
The spokeswoman described how Hartlepool’s neighbourhood policing team had recently charged a number of people with burglary offences and in Middlesbrough work was being carried out around robberies.
The added: “We are committed to making our communities safer.”