Crime Falling In South Oxfordshire

ACCORDING to end of year figures released yesterday,
crime has significantly reduced across Oxfordshire in the last financial year.
All five Local Police Areas across the county, including South Oxfordshire, which covers Thame, have achieved reductions in crime when compared to last year’s baseline figure set in March,2004, as part of three year targets.
Figures are measured to a national standard under the British Crime Survey. The figures include all key crimes such as burglary, assault, vehicle crime and robbery.
Compared with last year, South Oxfordshire LPA achieved the greatest fall of all the areas, 7.6% against the base line. Vehicle crime in the area came down and theft fell by a third against the baseline.

Chief Supt David McWhirter, of Thame Valley Police, said: ?I am encouraged by these figures, particularly since we have achieved significant reductions in a time of major change for the Force – moving to a basic command unit for Oxfordshire.
?The reductions in vehicle crime, burglary and theft are substantial and I want to ensure that this downward trend continues.
?We will keep the pressure on with street crime and continue our efforts against robbery. We are putting in to place robust plans across the local police areas to tackle criminal damage and neighbourhood policing teams are addressing local issues of damage and disorder.
?Domestic violence has shown the greatest increase of 42.4%. We have known for some time that this is a hidden crime and is greatly under reported. We launched a major campaign last year to increase awareness and encourage reporting of domestic violence which goes some way to explaining this sharp increase. The increase in reporting is also reflected nationally.
?We are taking a zero tolerance approach to those offenders and are working hard to bring them to justice. We have introduced a strict arrest policy which means more offenders are being brought into the criminal justice system and we have increased the size of our specialist unit assigned to dealing with them.
?We have been working with our partners to tackle domestic violence and have introduced specially trained ?champions? across our services to make reporting easier and to ensure victims get the right help. ?

Photo: Chief Inspector David McWhirter.
Image copywright: Thames Valley Police