Crime figures 'show success of neighbourhood policing'

Reading police say that crime has fallen 3.4 per cent this year, thanks to new neighbourhood policing methods. Car crime has slumped but the 'real success' has been in the reduction of criminal damage.

Crime in Reading, Berkshire, has fallen by 3.4 per cent this year, according to figures released yesterday. Theft from vehicles fell by 13 per cent, criminal damage was down 11 per cent, common assault (non-domestic) by two per cent, theft from person by seven per cent, vehicle thefts by five per cent and vehicle interference by three per cent. Since the base line 2003 level, crime has dropped by 14.4 per cent, claim police.

Other crime types have rise. Between April 2007 and March 2008

• theft of peddle cycles was up the most by 25 per cent;
• wounding from domestic violence was up 24 per cent;
• common assault from domestic violence was up 21 per cent;
• robbery was up four per cent;
• house burglaries up one per cent.

Superintendent Steve Kirk at Reading Police Station said: “This year we have seen a really good reduction in auto crimes, and burglary is pretty much static. But I would say the real success has been the reduction of criminal damage. I’m really pleased with criminal damage as it’s a type of offence that affects a lot of people."

Criminal damage was down by 11 per cent and at a Safer Reading Forum meeting last Wednesday, Inspector Andy Bellman said he felt it was “intrinsically linked to the introduction of Neighbourhood Policing to Reading”.

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