Police strive to meet new target (From Gazette & Herald)

Police strive to meet new target

NORTH Yorkshire Police's eastern area commander has warned there is a tough battle ahead for officers after the Chief Constable set new targets for crime reduction and detection.

At a meeting of the Ryedale and District police and community group at Kirkbymoorside Town Hall, Inspector Neil Burnett said Chief Constable Della Cannings had set three targets - to achieve a nine per cent reduction in crime and a 35 per cent crime detection rate, and to answer emergency calls more quickly.

As crime figures have plummeted in North Yorkshire, making it the second safest place to live in the country, Insp Burnett said it would not be an easy job to slash crime by nine per cent.

"To achieve a nine per cent reduction in crime across Ryedale means there's a tough battle ahead. We've worked hard to drive crime down and gain year-on-year higher success," said Insp Burnett.

He said one example of this was home burglaries, which were down 46 per cent this year compared with the last.

Insp Burnett said one goal was in reach, with last month officers having particular success at matching criminals to crimes.

"In May the detection rate was 41 per cent - which is starting to approach half of all criminals caught. I would never have thought with my 22 years police service that it was possible," said Insp Burnett.

He said that on average the crime detection rate across the force was somewhere in the region of 23 to 24 per cent.

He said the key crime areas that the force wanted to concentrate on were criminal damage and vandalism and violent crime.

"Overall performance at the moment is looking very healthy. To continue the downward trend in crime is going to be hard, but we are going to concentrate on achieving that. Detection rates are looking very healthy," he said.

Insp Burnett praised the community policing structure and said there were proactive community beat officers, PC Ray Thwaites in Helmsley and Steve Leach in Kirkbymoorside, who effectively reduced crime.

The meeting heard that in July there were set to be 44 police constables on the streets of Ryedale - the highest for a number of years, as there were only 32 officers at one point.

Updated: 10:55 Monday, June 07, 2004