Force ready to meet funding challenge as report details recent success
Thursday, 16 September, 2010
South Yorkshire has seen the fourth largest drop in crime in the country, according to latest annual statistics.
The 13 per cent reduction in recorded crime is among a number of success stories for South Yorkshire Police, contained in a performance report that will go before police authority members on Friday (17 September).
But Assistant Chief Constable Andy Holt believes there is more work to be done and is confident that the Force will meet future challenges, despite the current economic climate, through a combination of grit and determination.
The report reveals that SYP was judged among the top four most improved forces in England and Wales during the last year by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary - and that the Force showed the greatest prospect for improvement in 2010.
SYP yearly figures for violence against the person showed the second largest reduction of all forces, while there were also substantial drops in house burglaries and vehicle theft.
The report also details a significant increase in public confidence in the Force, recognising the drive to make SYP more community focussed, while satisfaction levels remain at 83.5 per cent, just below the 85 per cent target.
Latest figures show that serious acquisitive crime has continued to fall this year - currently ten per cent down compared with the same period last year. And a focus on vehicle crime has contributed to a 16 per cent reduction, though there has been a slight rise (two per cent) in house burglaries.
Criminal damage - which accounts for a fifth of overall crime in the county - is down by 20 per cent or 1,804 fewer offences, according to statistics for this April to July compared with the same period the previous year.
Knife crime rates have also fallen by 15 per cent on the previous year, though gun crime has risen by 11 offences.
Said ACC Holt: "I'm delighted with the progress we've made and I'm delighted our success has been recognised. Equally I understand that maintaining that success and further improving our performance is going to be extremely challenging given the financial situation that the Force is going to face after the Comprehensive Spending Review.
"It's my aim to continue to maintain that improvement in our performance and I do not want to allow South Yorkshire Police to get into the mindset that it's acceptable for performance to decline because of the reduced funding that we are allocated.
"One of the things I'm most proud of is that whenever the Force has been set a challenge, whether that be to improve confidence and satisfaction or reduce acquisitive crime such as vehicle crime, we have risen to and met that challenge and I do not see that the situation is going to change in the foreseeable future."
An area that will need to meet that challenge is call handling. Of the 88,864 emergency calls received between April and August this year, 85.2 per cent have been answered within ten seconds, while 89 per cent of the 335,778 non-emergency calls were answered within 30 seconds - narrowly missing the 90 per cent target.
