Crime is significantly down in Wiltshire, a drop of 4.7 per cent for the year 2013 enabling the police force to maintain its position as the sixth lowest nationally for overall crime and the fourth lowest for household burglary rates.
This compares nationally for the 38 police forces in England whose overall crime rate diminished by 3.4 per cent.
“I am really encouraged by Wiltshire Police maintaining its sixth position nationally with the lowest overall crime figures,” Chief Constable Pat Geenty told Marlborough News Online.
“We have however got some areas to work on such as non-dwelling burglaries. I am pleased that the changes we have made to the way record crimes are resulting in more accurate crime figures.
“This has meant an increase in some areas but in the long run will show a more accurate picture.”
There has been a small increase of 2.3 per cent of violence against the person compared with a 1.1 per cent increase nationally. This is due to an increase in the number of victims reporting first time offences. Wiltshire Police encourage victims of domestic violence to come forward to enable the police to continue to understand and reduce violence within the county.
Sexual offences have increased by 30.7 per cent due to changes in recording practices and also attributed to high profile cases with multiple victims during the reporting period. Nationally, there has been a 16.6 per cent increase in reported sexual offences which may reflect that more victims are willing to come forward and report crime.
