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Law - Detection Rate 2

The data breaks the crime figures down to basic command unit level in the police so that sharp variations in the performance of every police division can spotted. The figures confirm that in terms of violent crime, particularly robbery, Lambeth in south London has the worst record in England and Wales with a 38% year on year increase in offences and a robbery rate of 17 per 1,000 population. It is followed by Hackney and Manchester, both with 11 per 1,000. The worst burglary hotspots are Nottingham with 53 per 1,000 households, Manchester (50 per 1,000), Middlesbrough (50 per 1,000), Hull (47 per 1,000) and Salford (44 per 1,000).

Backed by the findings of British Crime Survey, which measures people's experience of crime, the recorded figures suggest crime is going down in Britain fuelled by a booming economy, falling unemployment and increasingly successful crime reduction strategy. The detailed recorded crime figures confirm the overall detection rate for all recorded crime has now fallen to 24%. The detection rate for violent crime, which is much higher than that for burglary and car crime, fell by four points in the last year alone, the culprit being found in just 55% of cases.

While the killer is still being caught in 90% of murder cases, the clear up rate for robbery has fallen to only 18%, just ahead of the 12% detection rate for burglaries. The crime figures also show an 11% rise in the number of homicides, from 765 to 850, with most of the increase accounted for by the deaths of 58 Chinese migrants in a container lorry at Dover. They also show a further sharp reduction in the number of people arrested for possession of drugs, mainly cannabis, which have fallen from 112,000 arrests in 1998-99 to 92,700 in 2000-01. Home Office statisticians believe this is due to a decline in the use of stop and search rather than a change in national policy on charging minor drug offenders.

Police chiefs are ending a back-on-the-beat campaign - even though it cut street crime by ten per cent. Hundreds of officers - including Chief Constable Mike Hedges - left their stations and returned to the streets. They caught twice as many robbers and cut snatch thefts by almost ten per cent during the six-week experiment in South Yorkshire. Senior officers hailed the scheme a success - but said the reduction in crime was not big enough to make the trial permanent. Police chiefs acted after failing to meet Government targets on street crime.

Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham were flooded with extra officers as training courses and paperwork were put on hold. Mounted sections did extra patrols, plain clothes officers donned uniforms to give an extra public presence and cops were paid overtime to work on days off. Public confidence in the force was boosted as cops blitzed robbers, thieves and drug dealers. South Yorkshire officers made 1,300 arrests during the period, including 284 for robbery, snatch theft and firearms offences.

Mr Hedges said the detection rate for robberies doubled, mainly because cops were able to respond to incidents more quickly. But in a report to the South Yorkshire Police Authority, Mr Hedges says the force cannot maintain the extra patrols without hurting other priority areas and outlying districts.

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