Crime in Newark and Sherwood highest for almost a decade, say ONS figures

Recorded crime in Newark and Sherwood is at its highest level for nearly a decade, official figures show.

The Office For National Statistics (ONS) figures reveal that in the year ending June 2018, there were 8,404 crimes were recorded in the district, almost 1,000 more than the previous year when there were 7,567 crimes.

During the comparable year in 2009 crime figures peaked at 8,867.

Nottinghamshire Police said it had launched Operation Vow in response to the rise.

Neighbourhood Inspector Heather Sutton said: "We regularly monitor local crime trends and through our tasking and performance process we had identified crime increases and have since undertaken extensive analytical work to ensure we correctly identify the issues.

"As a result, we have developed Operation Vow, which aims to solve the problems, long term.

"We will be looking to work with partners, including the district council and commissioned drug services, to develop the operation and problem solve specific issues encountered.

"Operation Vow will include overt and covert patrols tackling a recent increase in crime."

She said the number of police officers in Nottinghamshire was increasing.

"We are actively increasing the number of front-line officers across Nottinghamshire, and recently crossed the 2,000 officer mark, despite the current level of fiscal challenge," she said.

"Newark and Sherwood is being boosted with extra officers as part of the recruitment drive and can call on response officers from across the county as and when they are needed, as well as specialist resources such as the Neighbourhood Support Unit, Drug Support Team, Roads Policing, Armed Policing and Dogs Team among others."

Instances of possession of weapons is one area where there has been an increase. However, Nottinghamshire Police claimed that was a positive. It said that meant offenders were being caught before they went on to use such weapons.

It said crimes such as shoplifting and stalking and harassment had increased because of changes in the recording of crime.

It said the increase in reports of sexual offences was also a positive and represented a change in public perception, with more people having the strength to come forward and report such incidents ­— something it encouraged.

Violence with and without injury has also increased in Newark and Sherwood. Nottinghamshire Police said this was also the case nationally, and, in part, due to the way incidents were being recorded more accurately

“Nationally there has been a rise in the number for recorded crimes, with forces like us scrutinising our crime-recording to ensure it is ethically aligned to the National Crime Recording Standards," said Inspector Sutton.

"This can be measured by the way that calls to service have broadly remained the same, thus we are largely receiving the same amount of calls but recording more incidents as crimes than we were previously.

"The Police and Crime Commissioner also launched a strategy on knife crime in recent weeks, which will involve the force and its partners working together to tackle the issue head-on, and I continue to reinforce the importance of local policing and bolster the frontline with new recruits.

“Officers in Nottinghamshire continue to arrest, prosecute and convict a significantly higher number of individuals than any of our near neighbours, which reflects the hard work that happens here every day.”

Newark MP Robert Jenrick is meeting with Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping and Chief Constable Craig Guildford to make his case for a fair share of police officers after residents told him the area was under-policed.

He has sent a survey to all households in Newark and Balderton ahead of next month’s meeting asking for households to detail their experiences and perceptions of crime and policing.

Mr Tipping reaffirmed his commitment Newark will get a fair share of new police officers to the Advertiser last week.

Speaking this week, Mr Tipping said the ONS figures gave a false impression on crime.

"Northumberland has seen a 43% increase in recorded crime and Lancashire has seen a 44% increase," he said.

"Nobody believes crime is going up, it's about how crime is reported and recorded. All across the country police forces are seeing steep increases in crime."

David Lloyd, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “We are doing everything possible to reduce the crime levels in the district.

"At present, there are some who lack respect for both other people and the police and it is essential that we work together to say this will not be tolerated."