Wiltshire Police sees drop in reported crime in Covid pandemic

Figures from the ONS released today (Thursday November 4) show a drop of 8 per cent in reported crime in the county over the last 12 months.

This data shows that Wiltshire Police has the second lowest figures for reported crime per population during the 12 months to June 2021, with 52.5 crimes for every 1,000 people.

The force says this is the result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wiltshire Police said the force’s long-term trend shows relative stability in the crime rate, and so they expect crime volumes to increase and return to expected levels following the pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, due to the lockdowns that meant businesses were closed and people were staying at home more, Wiltshire Police has seen significant reductions in:

• shoplifting (-34 per cent)
• theft (-47 per cent)
• domestic burglary (-37 per cent)
• vehicle offences (-17 per cent).

Interestingly, there have been increases in reports of stalking and harassment (13 per cent), robbery (7 per cent) and possession of weapon offences (6 per cent).

There was also an increase in rape reports, with a 12 per cent increase in sexual offences, which includes reports of rape.

Miscellaneous crimes against society also increased by 17 per cent. 'Miscellaneous crime' is made up of different types of crime including fly tipping, perverting the course of justice and possession of indecent photographs of children.

Why the increase?

Wiltshire Police say the increase in reports of stalking and harassment has been impacted by its work to raise awareness of these offences and encourage reporting, and "changes to crime recording guidelines".

The force also says its increase in rape reports was largely due to a single month in 2020 which saw an unusually high number of reports (of which, half related to non-recent offending).

It adds that its most recent data, for the year ending October 2021, shows its rape reports have actually decreased by 1.3 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.

As for robbery, Wiltshire is one of just three forces to see an increase in robbery, bucking the national and regional trend.

The force says this is because we have a low level of these sorts of crimes, so this percentage increase was down to just four additional crimes, and the previous year had a single month with exceptionally low robbery reports, which skewed the annual figures to create an exceptionally low year.

Only 'half the story'

Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has said that crime figures released today only tell half the story when it comes to crime in the county.

Philip Wilkinson remains concerned that there are many more offences being committed in the county that police are not aware of.

He said: “It’s important that we don’t get carried away with the numbers reported today as I firmly believe they tell only half the story.

"Many in our rural communities, especially farmers simply get on with life rather than reporting criminality when it does occur.

"For those who report crime, there will be many others who won’t and can’t, and it’s important that my office and Wiltshire Police continues to ensure this widening gap between us, and the public is closed.

"By working together, we can increase public confidence so we have a true understanding of the picture in Wiltshire and can work together to make the county safer.

"My Police and Crime plan will help to bridge this gap between the statistics and the reality of crime for victims in Wiltshire setting a clear direction and bringing together key partners to ensure that people feel safe in addition to actually being safe.

"The increase in sexual offences should not come as a surprise, it is a crime that we know is significantly underreported and I suspect there will be many victims who haven’t felt able to contact police contrary to the increase these numbers show.

"Sexual offences continue to be crimes that are often committed behind closed doors and then not reported to the police for whatever reason and it’s important these victims receive the necessary support regardless of whether they wish to report to the police or not."

An 'unprecedented 12 months'

Superintendent Sarah Robbins, Wiltshire Police’s head of geographical crime, said: “Although this eight per cent reduction in reported crime is obviously a positive thing, both for us as a police force and for our communities, it is important to remember that these figures reflect an unprecedented 12 months, where the pandemic had an understandable and predictable impact on the types of crimes being reported.

"However, the fact Wiltshire has the second lowest crime rate per population is something to be celebrated and I hope it provides some reassurance to people locally about the work Wiltshire Police is doing to keep people safe.

"We are now focused on the long-term picture, and we are already looking ahead to what we expect the coming years to bring as the country returns to a new normality.

"Our job now is to be prepared for this so we can respond and ensure any crime rises are minimal.

"We are committed to protecting the public and although a huge amount of police work is around investigating and solving crime, and ensuring offenders are brought to justice, it is potentially even more important that we focus on crime prevention and reduction.

"We have various long-term initiatives in place, including working closely with partner agencies, to tackle the root cause of crime and ideally prevent offences being committed in the first place.

"We know that sometimes statistics alone can paint an inaccurate picture, so I hope that providing the context behind some of these figures and explaining the analysis that we carry out to understand various crime trends will be reassuring for our communities.

"For example, although the rise in reports of rape looks concerning, we want to make it clear that our own most recent data has actually seen a drop of 1.3 per cent.

"Dealing with rape and serious sexual offences is currently a priority for the Force, and we have been working closely with partner agencies to ensure we have a range of measures in place so we can both support victims and also increase the likelihood that the perpetrator will face justice.

"It goes without saying that we take reports of rape and sexual assault incredibly seriously and we want our communities to have complete confidence in reporting these types of offences to the police.

"We keep a very close eye on all of our data, so we can act quickly to understand the potential reasons behind various figures and take any necessary action to prevent crime and keep people safe.

"Overall, my main message to the public is that when you compare our overall data to other forces of a similar size and population, Wiltshire continues to be a very safe place to live and work and our officers and staff continue to work incredibly hard to protect the public."

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