Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster has welcomed new data showing the force is outperforming the national average across the major crime categories.
The latest Crime Survey for England & Wales (CSEW) report, which covers the 12 months to the end of September 2022, showed Derbyshire Constabulary compares favourably against crime rates for England and Wales including All Crime (excluding Fraud), Violence, Sexual Offences, Theft, Residential Burglary and Vehicle Crime.
The Derbyshire force also reported lower crime rates per head of population than the average for the East Midlands region in the same categories.
In addition, compared to the year ending March 2020, Neighbourhood Crime (Robbery, Residential Burglary, Vehicle Theft and Theft from Person) fell by 19 per cent in Derbyshire while police recorded incidents of Anti-social Behaviour fell by a further seven per cent – both key priorities in the Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan. Theft reduced by 18 per cent while police recorded firearms offences also fell by 10 per cent; five per cent lower than when compared to the previous year.
Welcoming the progress, Commissioner Angelique Foster said: “Our Police officers and PCSOs across Derbyshire are doing an excellent job against the priorities in my Police and Crime Plan and continue to find new ways of working to provide a better service to the public.
“Burglaries, theft and Anti-Social Behaviour are issues that cause significant concern to residents which is why I have made it very clear to the Chief Constable that I expect to see these issues tackled robustly. The evidence from this latest report shows their efforts are making a difference and this is further reinforced by the force’s performance against average crime rates for England and Wales and the East Midlands region.
“However, we cannot afford to become complacent. Every crime creates a victim and I will continue to scrutinise future performance closely to ensure our police service continues to improve and meet the high standards expected by the public.”
The data shows that in Derbyshire 78.8 crimes were recorded per 1,000 population in the 12 months ending September 2022 compared to a national average of 92.6.
For Violence, the figure was 33.5 (England & Wales 35.8), Sexual Offences 3.3 (England & Wales 3.3), Theft offences 18.9 (England & Wales 27.4), Residential Burglary 2.4 (England & Wales 3.3) and Vehicle Crime 4.3 (England & Wales 6.6).
Derbyshire has also improved its crime recording accuracy, particularly with respect to Violence and Sexual Offences.
Nationally, police recorded crime has increased 10 percent compared to pre-Covid levels (year ending March 2020) which is thought to be due to changes to and improvements in recording practices as victim confidence to report increases.
In the 12 months to September 2022, the rise was 13 per cent nationally compared to three per cent in Derbyshire.