PSNI fail to clear three quarters of crimes

Just one in every four crimes was cleared in the North last year, it was revealed today.

The drop coincided with a rise in sexual assaults, offences against children and race hate attacks.

But police did manage to bring overall crime levels down by nearly 2%, and recorded big reductions in burglaries, thefts, fraud and forgery, and robberies.

As the figures were put before a Policing Board meeting in Belfast, senior officers stressed their successes.

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said developing techniques and greater public support was helping in the war on crime.

He said: “There has been a decrease of 1.7% in overall crime in 2006/07 compared with the previous year. This means 2,050 fewer crimes committed. Since 2002/03 crime has fallen by 21,352 offences, a decrease of 15%.”

Mr Leighton stressed how burglaries fell by 9.9%; thefts by 5.8%; and fraud and forgery offences by 12%.

Vehicle crimes were down by 8.8% and robberies showed an overall decrease of 9.7%.

A fifth more people were arrested for drug related offences and, even though overall seizures dropped, the recovery of Class A narcotics rose by nearly 59%.

Although the force was set a target of clearing 29% of crimes during 2006/07, it achieved under 24%.

This 7% drop from the year before was explained by police using a higher evidential standard for cases requiring no further action.

Bringing the force into line with England and Wales, the so-called non sanction clearances can involve those where a death during an inquiry can stop police advancing the case, or where victims will not prosecute – such as incidents of domestic violence.

But despite less murders and attempted killings, there were significant increases in some hate crime areas.

With rising numbers of migrant workers moving to the North amid massive economic development, attacks on ethnic minorities have become a major concern.

And last year 111 more racist incidents were recorded than the previous 12 months.

After Policing Board representative Suneil Sharma expressed concerns at the increase, Mr Leighton insisted his officers were trying to instil confidence among minority communities.

“Part of the rise may well be an increased confidence in reporting (crimes),” he said.

So-called faith/religion incidents also went up by nearly 95%, although homophobic and sectarian attacks fell.

Mr Leighton accepted there were areas of concern, pointing to an overall rise in violent crime, including a 5% increase in sexual assaults.

“In some jurisdictions reports of sexual offences have been declining and this has been linked to a lack of confidence in the legal system,” the Deputy Chief Constable said.

“If the rise in reports of sexual offences means that people are reporting the crime and have confidence in our ability to deal with it, then that is positive.

“Offences of criminal damage also rose by 4.4%. It is evident that there are times of the year when there are peaks in criminal damage, such as Halloween, and police are working in conjunction with communities to reduce the incidents of this crime though analysis and targeting specific areas.”