Crime levels in Bedfordshire are falling with a 6% drop in the first six months from April to September. This is a reduction of 2,200 crimes.
Members of the Bedfordshire Police Authority’s Performance Committee were told last week that there had been a 15% reduction in the number of violent crimes and that the risk of becoming a victim of crime had dropped from nearly 8% to 4.9% which is the sixth lowest figure in England and Wales. But they were concerned by a nasty blip in the statistics — the number of domestic burglaries had increased by 37% and they asked what was being done to address this. The county’s Assistant Chief Constable. Kath Govier, informed the committee that dedicated operations ware being carried out, working in collaboration with officers from Hertfordshire Constabulary, to tackle prolific offenders.
The quarterly performance report showed that Bedfordshire’s performance with regard to detections, although improving, is still worse than other comparable forces. The rate of detections in October stood at 24%, a significant improvement on the first six months of the year. Members were particularly keen to discover what was being clone to improve the force’s detection figures. During the meeting they received a presentation on the development of the Crime Investigation Service Improvement Plan, which outlined the actions being taken to increase investigative capability and the number of crimes successfully solved. The committee felt it was critical that staff at all levels are managed effectively in order to improve performance. The Director of Corporate Services is currently talking to the National Policing Improvement Agency on the subject of leadership and the
Chief Executive of the Police Authority agreed to discuss the issue with the internal auditors to identify areas where they could provide assistance. Other initiatives designed to improve performance include Safer Homes — ‘a strategy to prevent burglary, the use of SmartWater to help people identify stolen property and the continuing development of the central forensic management unit. Chairman of the Authority, Peter Conniff, said: “I’m pleased to see that detections are going in the right direction and would hope that Bedfordshire will soon be on par with its most similar forces. The fact that crime is down overall is also good news. “However, the amount of acquisitive crime, such as burglary and theft of bicycles, does give us cause for concern.” The report also highlighted the important role played by the forensic investigations. Sixty three percent of the force’s burglary detections were attributed to either DNA or fingerprint identification.
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