End of Year Results

[Town NPT]

We have just published our end of year result, I thought that you might be interested:

Detected Crime: 29.5% which has increased by 9% over the previous 12 months.
Recorded Crime: 741 which is a reduction of some 30 crimes over last year

While these figures leave me the task of trying to better this score next year, they are nonetheless encouraging & leaves Westbury as one of the safest places in the area to live (despite having a very high level of depravation).

This coming 12 months will see a number of initatives, importantly the introduction of Speed Watch, the development of Neighbourhood Watch, closer working with Citizens Advice, more involvement in the Schools & youth groups & a closer scrutiny of those licenced to sell alcohol, although these will only work with the support of local people,

Thanks for your support thus far,
Nick (& Team)

[Yokel]

We should improve our local public transport so all our local ciminals can afford to jump on a bus and go elsewhere to commit their crimes!!!   

ps nice one Nick (& Team) 

[Soup]

It's pretty cynical, but I don't see how you can gain much insight through crime stats?? There are too many variables.

[Yokel]

It is true that we can make stats look any way we want to but if they didnt report anything everyone would complain so I give it a thumbs up 

[Town NPT]

For those cynics among you, if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask & I will do my best to answer them, but ultimately we are putting more people through the Criminal Justice process & there are 30 less victims which, however cynical you are, is a good step forward.

[Mike Hawkins]

Nick, many thanks to you and the Team for your hard work.

I think also that now might be a good time to remember that, whilst it is the duty of the police to investigate crime, it is our duty to do what we can to prevent it.

[Yokel]

I have a question - is this figure "Detected Crime: 29.5% which has increased by 9% over the previous 12 months.

Is this 9% of 29.5% which equals an improvement of about 2.5 crimes per 100

Or

Is this 9% as a figure on top of last years - which would have been 20.5%, which equals an improvement of 43%, or 9 crimes per 100.

?

[charlie finbow]

My dear Nick.   Congrats all round i think.   I agree trying to top that next year may well be tough but I'm sure you will all do your best.   The figures over that past 3 years have been very encouraging, I know you and the public would love to see 100% but I feel that is a long way off but its moving in the right direction, well done.

[Soup]

Ok, well my question is, just for arguments sake, how many crimes went unreported or undetected by the police?  you don't have to answer

[Yokel]

Its not the police's fault if crimes arent reported!

[charlie finbow]

Interesting point, if they are not reported then how do the police know about it and how do they arrive at a figure.

[Soup]

It's debatable. I realise that many people just won't report crimes cos they don't want to. Some people, like me, may have phoned up to report a crime, but have ended up giving up due to phones not being answered etc. (talking minor crimes)

Essentially though, all I'm saying is that these stats don't show anything about the actual crime rate in Westbury, just the police reaction rate.

ps I'm not criticising the police, I just think stats are too easy to manipulate and don't usually give an accurate reflection of what's going on

[Yokel]

I'd like to see the answer to my question.....(repeated below).   There does need to be a minor version of the 999 phone number though - finding the local police station number, then getting through to Chippenham or whatever is not ideal - the beenfit of local knowledge is lost.

I have a question - is this figure "Detected Crime: 29.5% which has increased by 9% over the previous 12 months.

Is this 9% of 29.5% which equals an improvement of about 2.5 crimes per 100

Or

Is this 9% as a figure on top of last years - which would have been 20.5%, which equals an improvement of 43%, or 9 crimes per 100.

?

[Town NPT]

Yokel,

You are of course right, last years final figure was 20.5% of crimes were detected, the figure this year is 29.5%, this is a 43% rise, although to claim a 43% rise in detections might have seemed to be overstating the point (although technically correct).

On the subject of crimes that were unreported, it is clearly impossible to answer this, but what I will say is that the 0845 408 7000 gets answered quicker now than ever before, failing that you can email details of a crime through the force website, which avoids any necessity to hang around on phones, as it has been recognised that this is a potential weak link.

If you do find yourself hanging around longer than you feel is reasonable, let me know & I will feed this back to the person responsible for the department. But as Mike HAWKINS rightly pointed out, the reduction & detection of crime is a team effort & what determines our success is your commitment to creating a safe neighbourhood; I will ensure that we get the Policing right, but I need your help to tell me where we should be in order to resolve the problems, where we get it wrong, please let me know & I will put measures in place so that we don't repeat the mistake.

Anyway, should anyone wish to visit the Police station, I am more than happy to run you through how the figures are put together to dispel any hint that we have cooked the books in some way,

All the best
Nick (& Team)

[thatmanfez]

Nick (and team),

Excellent news! I’m very impressed and grateful for your continued efforts. I have no idea how you’re going to top that next year – maybe you could find out who Jack the Ripper was!

As far as letting you know what I want from you - more of the same! I am very pleased to see the increased visibility of the Westbury force. That must have an effect on the levels of committed (if not recorded) crime and makes us all feel protected. I don’t know how you’ve achieved that increase in detection rate, but I’d like to see more of it! Maybe you could aim to detect 1/3 of all crime (do any forces achieve that level?)

Well done and thank you again from all at clan Fez.