Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment Evidence Base 2007 Produced by the Research and Information Team, Chief Executive’s Department, Leicestershire County Council i Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 ii Foreword Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 Community Safety is an important issue for all the communities in Leicestershire, which requires the involvement of all key agencies as well as communities themselves. This first Partnership Strategic Assessment brings together a wide range of information on crime, disorder and other community safety issues across Leicestershire in order to inform decision making across Partner agencies so that together we can ensure we make the best use of our resources to address the key issues and problems facing our communities. This is an important document that will inform the new Local Area Agreement (LAA) and Community Safety Partnership Plans and to drive forward the work to make Leicestershire a safer place in which to live, work and visit. Mr Byron Rhodes Cabinet Lead Member for Community Safety Leicestershire County Council Chairman of Leicestershire Police Authority i Acknowledgments Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 Leicestershire Community Safety Partnership is indebted to the following organisations for providing information for this report: Leicestershire County Council Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the Leicestershire Constabulary accuracy of this document Leicestershire County Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service Council cannot accept responsibility for any errors Leicestershire Drug and Alcohol Action Team or omissions. Leicestershire Youth Offending Service Leicestershire Health Informatics Service The views expressed in this document are those of the authors. This report was produced by the Research & Information Team, Chief Executive’s Department, Leicestershire County Council. For further details please contact: Jeff Hardy Sharon Pye James Fox Debbie Langham Research Manager Research Officer Community Safety Officer Core Performance Group Officer Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire Constabulary Tel: 0116 305 7342 Tel: 0116 305 7413 Tel: 0116 305 8077 Tel: 0116 248 4828 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] ii Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment Summary Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 Purpose Summary of Key Findings of Partnership Strategic The purpose of this summary is to present the key findings of the Assessment 2007 report, “Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment Evidence Base The draft Partnership Strategic Assessment 2007 covers a range of 2007”. crime and disorder issues for Leicestershire and provides a detailed analysis. A copy of the report is available, on the Leicestershire Background Statistics and Research Online website www.lsr-online.org (formerly The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 required the production of known as LSORA) The following are some of the key findings from triennial crime and disorder audits to inform the strategic priorities, the report: set targets and performance measures for crime and disorder reduction partnerships. In 2006, the review of the CDA 1998 and How ‘Safe’ is Leicestershire the Police Reform Act 2002 lead to a series of recommendations. Leicestershire County has a low crime rate, 44.4 per 1,000 The Crime and Disorder (Formulation and Implementation of population compared to East Midlands (62.8) and England and Wales Strategy) Regulations 2007, which came into force on 1st August (60.7). 2007, requires the production of an annual partnership strategic assessment to replace the triennial audits. Long term crime trends With the exception of a reduction in 2005/6, over the last five years At its meeting on 25th September 2007, the Community Safety there has been a stable level of all recorded crime within Program Board (CSPB) received a progress report on the Leicestershire, circa 45,000 offences. development of a draft Partnership Strategic Assessment 2007, highlighting the proposal for the move from the triennial crime and Profile of recorded BCS crime within Leicestershire disorder audits to an annual partnership strategic assessment. The The three highest volume CSPs, Charnwood, North West CSPB noted the progress and agreed to receive a draft copy of the Leicestershire and Hinckley & Bosworth accounted for two thirds of final report. BCS crime in the County in 2006/7. In addition to the County report, draft partnership strategic In 2006/7, one CSP - Oadby & Wigston, was performing well assessments for each of the district community safety partnerships compared to its family group for total recorded BCS crime, (CSPs) in Leicestershire and one for Rutland have also been performance of three partnerships were approximately in line with prepared and are at present being consulted on. their family group and three were performing worse compared to their family group, namely, Charnwood, Hinckley & Bosworth and North West Leicestershire, the three highest volume crime areas. iii Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 High crime areas within Leicestershire Violent offences The highest concentrations of BCS crime were in the North of the After a peak in violent offences in the county during 2004/5, the County, with only two areas from the South in the top fifteen Lower number of recorded offences has since decreased and levelled out in Super Output Areas (areas of approximately 1500 residents). These the last two years. This follows a similar pattern to the national areas mainly related to major town centres, but a few related to trend. tourist attractions such as Donington Park and East Midlands Airport. With the exception of Blaby and Oadby & Wigston, the other CSPs within Leicestershire are performing worse when comparing the rate Crime in Urban and Rural Leicestershire of violent offences with similar CSPs across England and Wales. Three quarters (75%) of BCS crime occurs within urban areas of Leicestershire which accounts for two thirds of the county’s Loughborough, Coalville, Hinckley, Melton and Wigston town population. centres have the highest concentrations of crime within Leicestershire, in particular violent offences. Although only 2% of BCS crime occurs in the most rural areas of Leicestershire, the rate per thousand population in those areas is Vehicle crime higher than that for towns and villages in the County. Vehicle crime increased by 3% last year and accounts for one quarter of all BCS recorded crime in the county, during 2006/07. Criminal damage However, vehicle crime has fallen since 2002/03 in Leicestershire, Criminal damage makes up the largest portion of BCS comparator similar to the national trend. crime (36%). The County has had an increase in criminal damage of 7% in 2006/07 compared to the previous year, after a fairly stable Oadby & Wigston is the only CSP within Leicestershire that is number of offences recorded during the previous three years. This performing better than their family group when comparing the rate local trend is similar to the national trend. of vehicle crime. Criminal damage to vehicles accounts for the largest proportion and Burglary dwelling had the highest percentage increase out of the different criminal Within Leicestershire the number of recorded burglary dwelling damage offence types. offences increased by 14% during the last year (nationally it fell by 3%), but since 2002/3 it has only increased by 6% (nationally it With the exception of North West Leicestershire and Hinckley & decreased by 33% for the same period). Bosworth, all CSPs are performing as well as or better when comparing the rate of criminal damage to other similar CSPs. iv Leicestershire County Strategic Assessment 2007 Theft from person Hate incidents Last year there were 694 theft from person recorded within The number of hate incidents reported to Police in Leicestershire Leicestershire, over half were recorded within Charnwood and North has increased in the last four years by approximately 50%y West Leicestershire. Both of these areas had considerable percentage compared, to an increase of 20% nationally. increases in the number of recorded theft from person offences in the last year, in excess of 20%. The number of recorded thefts from The Hate Incident Monitoring Project (HIMP) has had 43 reported person offences was more than 25% over the PSA1 target in 2006/7 incidents in the first six months since the launch in February 2007. and is currently more than 25% over target during 2007/08. Anti-social behaviour Theft of cycle Last year approximately 28,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour Over half of all theft of cycle was in Charnwood in 2006/07, largely in were reported, 60% of these related to ‘rowdy’ or ‘inconsiderate the area of Loughborough University. Overall theft of cycle in the behaviour’ and another 12% for ’vehicle nuisance and inappropriate County has remained at a similar level during 2006/07, compared to behaviour’. The areas of highest recorded number of ASB incidents the previous year. are in the town centres of Loughborough, Hinckley and Coalville. Crime perceptions Arson Overall people’s perception of crime is low and on average There were 1,392 recorded incidents of arson during 2006/7, an respondents did not consider crime and disorder to be a ‘big problem’ increase of 5% compared to the previous