Figures show lowest crime rate across the county in over 35 years

A total of 77,421 crimes were recorded across the county between 1st April 2011 and 31st March 2012, an eight per cent reduction compared to the previous year.

In Bassetlaw, Newark and Sherwood crime fell by just under five per cent, with crimes of robbery the only one to rise, by 3.3 per cent, during that period.

Assistant chief constable Paul Broadbent said: “This sustained level of improvement is not just down to good policing or effective partnerships.”

“It has also been made possible through the help of the public. We know from detailed surveys that have been carried out that just as crime is on the decrease in Notts, public confidence in the police is on the rise.”

“They recognise the hard work that is going on to protect their communities, the speed with which our officers attend incidents and the support we give to victims of crime, and they respond to that. The result is they are more willing to report crime, antisocial behaviour and to respond to appeals for information.”

“There is a popular misconception that crime is down because no one bothers to call the police anymore.”

“Our control room dealt with 584,000 calls last year, up three per cent on 2010/11. Our response teams attended more than 226,000 incidents, again an increase on the previous 12 months.”

“From those, it was determined that in just over 77,400 incidents a crime had been committed.”

In less than a decade, the total number of offences in Notts has more than halved since over 160,000 crimes were recorded in 2002/03. During that time, the overall crime rate has fallen from 156.8 crimes per 1,000 people to 71.25 crimes per 1,000.

The last time the crime rate was so low in Notts was during 1976/77.

The biggest reduction in Bassetlaw division was the number of drug offences recorded, a reduction of 18.2 per cent.

“Only a few years ago, the chief constable of this force made burglary reduction our priority. The renewed focus on that objective means we can note an achievement of reducing burglary by a quarter in just 12 months,” added ACC Broadbent.

“It is also worth noting that we have continued to drive crime down in spite of severe financial restraints and major organisational change.”

“However, this is not about self-congratulation or back-slapping. One crime is one too many and we have a lot of work still to do.”