Warwickshire Praised For Reducing Violent Crime

Warwickshire Police has been praised for reducing violent crime in a combined assessment published by the Home Office.

The report which covers the period April 2004 to March 2005, highlights the effective use of high visibility patrols in key locations throughout Warwickshire, which has contributed to a reduction in public violence of 4%; bucking the national trend which has seen an increase.

The report also highlights good volume crime investigation, a high level of road policing and an effective criminal justice process.

Overall Warwickshire performed well in comparison to similar Forces.

The report "challenges Warwickshire in the coming year to strengthen its crime reduction performance with respect to domestic burglary and vehicle crime" - areas for improvement that the Force is well on the way to addressing, with a 14% reduction in household burglaries during the first half of this year compared to last year and a dramatic reduction in vehicle crime of 26%.

Of the seven service delivery grades awarded to Warwickshire, three are good and four are fair (acceptable). Within the categories that measure overall improvement, Warwickshire scored well.

Speaking about the report Chief Constable, John Burbeck said: "We welcome this assessment, which provides a valuable independent insight into the work of Warwickshire Police. It is a new process and we will take advantage of the lessons learnt to improve performance in the next year. We are already making progress in many areas of our performance, and as well as the excellent reductions in burglary and vehicle crime, we have made good progress in bringing offences to justice with results 7% above target, and reducing road casualties, being 43% better than our objective.

"The report highlights the effective use of local policing to tackle volume crime, and reinforces the high levels of public satisfaction recorded in Warwickshire.

"It also underlines the importance the Force places on partnership working - a corner stone of the proposals under discussion nationally to deliver effective neighbourhood policing under police reform. Clearly the findings will help us in balancing our strengths against our recognised shortcomings in our ability to tackle serious and organised crime.

"There are several areas included within the assessment, which are easier for the larger forces to demonstrate a higher level of capability than the smaller forces. It is our aim to close that gap."