Police hit record detection rate in their fight against Marlborough crime

Victim-based crime is on its way down in Marlborough and although thefts from vehicles continues to climb, detection rates for crime have hit a record level.

Police Sergeant Vincent Logue (pictured), who runs the policing teams covering Marlborough and Pewsey, reported this encouraging message to Marlborough town councillors at their meeting on Monday.

Comparing figures for June 2010 to May 2011 with the latest identical period, he revealed that victim-based crimes had dropped eight per cent, from 403 to 371, domestic burglary was down by one, from 15 to 14 and non domestic burglary, mainly farm buildings and outhouses, had dropped by 67 per cent, from 46 to 15.

There was also a decrease of 26 per cent – from 102 incidents to 75 – in cases of criminal damage and arson but vehicle crime had jumped 39 per cent – from 33 to 46 incidents.

And the number of cases of personal violence has increased by 10 – from 50 to 60 – a rise of 20 per cent.

“But the detection rate has increased and at 43 per cent is an excellent record for us,” Sergeant Logue pointed out, the biggest success being in cases of violence with a detection rate of 21 per cent in victim based crime and 20 per cent in criminal damage cases.

“Still of concern is the figure for vehicle crime, which is mostly made up of thefts from vehicles, notably at beauty spots. It is important not to leave valuables in unattended vehicles but during our patrols of beauty spots we still see people doing just that.

“With all the effort my team and I are putting into combating this type of offence using numerous tactics – both overt and covert – offences will continue to occur until people using these car parks take the necessary steps to protect their property.

“We simply can’t be everywhere all the time.”

Vandals reveal girls’ names and phone numbers

One new form of “crime” was reported by Val Compton, who revealed that the names of girls together with their phone numbers was being scrawled on public seats by graffiti vandals.

“And it is very difficult to get their names off,” she said.

There was a need to deter this form of graffiti damage, the more so as one girl she knew of was aware of her name and number being advertised and had reacted “quite strongly.”

Sergeant Logue indicated that police would now keep a watch out for the culprits concerned.