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| Helen Thorne (Police, Communications Officer, Thames Valley) |
Thames Valley Police has released crime statistics which cover the past twelve months.
The latest figures show that there were 138,710 crimes reported across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire from 1 April 2016 until 31 March 2017. This is a 7.2% increase to the previous year (2015/16) where there were 129,449 reported crimes within the same time frame.
Of these 9,895 crimes were reported in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse Local Police Area (LPA), a rise of 4.0% on last year.
The increase in crime reports is reflected nationally (ONS Crime Survey of England and Wales ), and is largely attributed to improvements in compliance with National Crime Recording Standards, following recommendations made by HMIC in 2014.
Overall crime levels in Thames Valley still remain low compared with five and ten years ago. There were 66,976 fewer crimes recorded in this timeframe compared with five years ago (205,686), and 8,357 fewer recorded offences compared with ten years ago (147,067).
Following the release of the figures, Superintendent Rory Freeman, LPA Commander for South and Vale said: “Whilst we have seen some increase in reports of crime this year, this is similar to the national trend.
“Despite this, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse continues to be a very safe place to live and work. The future is challenging and our priority is constantly trying to match the right resources to our areas of greatest harm and demand whilst seeking to maintain and enhance public confidence in policing.
“Our officers work hard with communities to prevent crime and we are encouraging people to take simple steps that will protect them, their property and businesses. Campaigns such as #Protectyourworld in the Autumn and our February rural crime campaign are good examples of how we have raised awareness and confidence in our communities to report incidents to us .
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank my staff and our partner agencies for their hard work over the last year and most importantly extend my gratitude to our communities for their continued support.”
