Rise in sexual offences in North East Lincolnshire

Humberside Police recorded 609 incidents of sexual offences in North East Lincolnshire in the 12 months to December, according to the Office for National Statistics - an increase of 12 percent compared to the previous year.

Overall, the total number of offences in North East Lincolnshire fell by 12 percent, with police recording 18,262 crimes over the course of the year.

This puts the overall crime rate at 114.5 per 1,000 people, compared to a national average of 80.8.

Other crimes recorded in North East Lincolnshire included:

7,054 violent offences, a decrease of four percent

4,512 theft offences, down 33 percent

2,585 incidents of criminal damage and arson, down 10%

319 drug offences, up 14%

124 possession of weapons such as firearms or knives, down 9%

2,356 public order offences, up 11%

At 3.8 crimes per 1,000 people, that was slightly higher than the rate across England and Wales, which stood at 2.5.

Humberside Police's Assistant Chief Constable Darren Downs said: “I am pleased to say that in Humberside over the last 12 months (to December 2020), we have seen a decrease in total recorded crime (excluding fraud) of 11.6 percent, larger than the national average of a 9.5% decrease. This is something we are very proud of, and the positive impact this will have had on our communities.

“We’ve have seen large decreases in offences such as burglary, vehicle offences, bike theft, shoplifting, robbery, general theft and sexual offences across the Force area.

“Offences of this nature are the types which have a huge impact on victims, as they can leave them feeling violated and fearing for their safety, so I am really pleased to see that most of our communities have seen these crime types decrease.

“We have teams dedicated to investigating offences of this nature, following every possible enquiry to identify offenders and take them off the streets to prevent further incidents.

“Where we have seen a 20 percent increase is for reported drug related offences, such as; possession of cannabis or controlled drugs. Within Humberside, this increase can be attributed to all of our proactive work, through Operation Galaxy, in identifying these offences, executing warrants, actively stop-and-searching more individuals and conducting targeted days of action aimed at disrupting organised criminals."

ACC Downs said that the force's Roads Crime Team was also introduced to target those using road networks to transport and deal illicit substances, and the team have arrested thousands of individuals and taken millions of pounds worth of drugs off the street. During the last year, Op Galaxy alone arrested over 1,600 people, recovered over £6 million worth of drugs and took over 50 lethal weapons off the streets.

“Through Humber Talking and media appeals, we have also seen an increase in community information coming through to our local policing teams," he said. "This information has been critical to the targeted action we’ve been taking and has ensured we have been investigating the crime types and people that they are most concerned about.

“We have also recorded an increase of 13.9 percent in the number of public order offences. Nationally this is also the picture and is mostly due to the improvements that have been made in recording practices.

“Our priority is always to protect the public and ensure we have a good understanding of our communities so that we can work closely with them to help prevent crime.

“We would always encourage people to report offences to us, so that we can investigate and take offenders off our streets, and also have the most accurate picture of what it is like in our communities.”