Crime and Disorder

Safer north devon Volume crime encompasses all elements of violent crime including domestic violence. Violent crime is the most concern to our communities and to us as a partnership. The national trend for violent crime is increasing. We are increasing reporting of domestic violence locally, which is also increasing the recorded incidences of violent crime.

Violence is one of the leading causes of ill health and premature death globally. From threatening behaviour through to murder, violence has devastating effects on victims, their families and friends, witnesses and entire communities.

Safer North Devon promotes integrated working between agencies responsible for supporting victims; dealing with perpetrators of violence and controlling the environmental and social factors that contribute to the development of violent behaviour.

Volume Crime
Vehicle Crime
Business Crime
Burglary

Volume Crime

Volume crime here is defined as Burglary, Business Crime, Vehicle Crime, and Violent Crime.

Volume crime in Safer North Devon is of concern for a number of reasons. Firstly, volume crime is often a barometer for other significant social problems and often highlights issues around community cohesion and indicators such as drug and alcohol problems.

Volume crime such as burglary and vehicle crime are termed as acquisitive crime, which means they are a crime category often linked to the needs of chaotic drug and alcohol users.

Fear of Crime

Fear of crime, lack of public reassurance can seriously affect quality of life.

A community safety partnership has a role to increase public reassurance through partnership.

National bodies that focus on increasing public reassurance through support victims and raising awareness of risk whilst reducing fear include:

Crime Concern
Victim Support
Suzy Lamplugh trust
Help the Aged
Crime Reduction Teams in the Regional Government Offices
Police Crime Prevention Officers
Neighbourhood and street warden schemes

We should therefore not become complacent with national trends, if a third of our elderly population might live in fear, we can make a significant difference by our appropriate and targeted actions.

There are contrasting views as to whether people's fear of crime plays a part in reducing actual crime. A small degree of fear of crime ensures that people are prepared and will take action to reduce crime.

Is Fear of Crime Justified?

A person may have been a victim of a crime or know other people, friends or neighbours, who have been victims or they may live or have lived in an area with a high crime rate relative to the surrounding area. our aim is to attempt to understand why some people are afraid so that we can formulate policies and introduce measures that are effective in reducing both crime and fear of crime.

Priority and Prolific Offender

Government statistics state that out of 1 million active offenders, it is approximately 100,000 of these who commit 50% of all crime. And 9% of crime can be attributed to 5,000 members of this group - so called 'super prolific' offenders.

This scheme targets those offenders who cause the most damage to our community through repeat prolific offending, therefore reducing local crime figures.

The Prolific and Other Priority Offender Scheme is a single initiative in three complimentary strands, aimed at reducing crime by targeting those who offend most, or who otherwise cause most harm to their communities.

In the simplest terms, the strategy may be looked at as a guide, to ensure that all agencies (for example those dealing with drug and alcohol misuse) that could potentially be dealing with a prolific offender, communicate with each other and co-ordinate their efforts effectively. Although they are applied at a national level, Safer North Devon, as the local Community Safety Partnership (CSP) utilises resources from our partner agencies to tailor services at a local level.

The three strands are:

Prevent & Deter, working with young people considered to be at most risk of offending in the future. This strand is led by the Youth Offending Team (YOT).

Catch & Convict, Safer North Devon and each Community Safety Partnership identify a small number of individuals deemed to be causing most harm to their communities, guided by a national framework, tailored to local requirements by the Local Criminal Justice Board. The Police, through the Chief Inspector locally, lead this strand.

Rehabilitate & Resettle, led by the Prison and Probabtion Services, working with a range of other agencies, this strand provides intensive support for prolific or priority offenders whilw they serve their sentences - whether they be sentenced in the community or in custody. This assistance is offered to prevent relapse into offending on release and subject to a swift return to the courts, should this occur.

Vehicle Crime

Vehicle crime refers to:

Theft from a motor vehicle
Theft of a motor vehicle
Vehicle interference
Taking without an owners consent (TWOC)

In Safer North Devon, vehicle crimes year on year showed reductions in theft of a vehicle and TWOC but increases in theft from a vehicle and vehicle interference when compared with Devon and Cornwall Constabulary and nationally.

In partnership we will undertake appropriate problem solving responses to the areas of concern. For example, Barnstaple is identified as having 50.4% of recorded thefts from vehicles – targeting this location will significantly impact on the incidences and its impact on our community. This is an ongoing priority for the Police Crime Reduction Team.

Safer North Devon will support initiatives proposed by the Police Crime Reduction Team, we will empower communities to make a positive impact on the rate of vehicle crime through continued education and will make efforts to problem solve through partnership in our vehicle crime hot-spots.

Business Crime

A Home Office Audit in 2001 estimated that 44% of the cost of all crime is suffered by businesses and organisations. However little business crime is reported to the police.

Business crime trends locally show an increase since our 2001 audit. 2002/03 saw an increase of 14.3% on the previous year and a further increase of 6.2% for 2003/04. We know that this is only a percentage of actual business crime, but it is not clear if crime is increasing or we are merely increasing reporting.

Safer North Devon have capitalised on the opportunity to develop systems locally to combat existing issues of business related crime and provide a clear message of prevention. Additionally we secured 3 successive years of government funding to purchase hand-held radios for “Radio-Net” schemes. These schemes are initiated from a partnership between police colleagues, district and town councils and the business and licensees of our district. Currently schemes are run in Barnstaple, Bideford, Westward Ho!, Northam, Appledore, Instow Ilfracombe, Braunton and Torrington.

Barnstaple has also recently been awarded the prestigious Safer Business Award, the first in Devon and Cornwall to do so.

Burglary

Our recent audit of crime and disorder shows burglary as 9.2% of the total crimes recorded in North Devon between 1st April 2003 and 31st March 2004.

Our district performs well with 5.6 domestic burglaries per 1,000 household (for the period of 1st April 2004 to the 31st March 2005) compared to the national average of 21.3, however it is important not to become complacent.

Crime hotspots have been identified and have helped us understand those areas in each of our main towns where burglary causes the biggest problem, this enables us to target appropriate preventative measures.