West Mercia officers increase despite national claim over violent crime
Reports that a drop in the number of English police has led to more violent crime does not reflect policing in Shropshire, according to the region's police and crime commissioner John Campion.
A leaked Home Office document has revealed that the fall in police numbers is likely to have contributed to a rise in violent crime across the country.
The document, from February, reveals that forces have faced greater demand since 2012 due to an increase in the number of recorded sex offences, while during the same time officer numbers have also fallen.
It also states that a lack of resources and fewer people being charged for crimes may have encouraged offenders to commit offences.
However, West Mercia Commissioner John Campion insisted that police numbers in the region have increased in recent years rather than decreasing.
He has also questioned the focus on figures, insisting that keeping communities safe is 'not just a numbers game'.
He said: "In the last few years the number of violent crimes recorded by police forces nationwide have gone up.
"In West Mercia, over the same period, our numbers of officers increased rather than decreased.”
“Keeping communities safe is not just a numbers game. It is about understanding crime and its causes better and using our resources more effectively and efficiently to deal with it.”
Rejected
The leaked Home Office document comes after 300 more Met police officers were deployed on the streets of London following a spike in knife crime, which has seen 35 people killed in the capital this year.
The government has responded to the report by saying that it does not comment on leaked documents.
It has also rejected claims that officer numbers are a factor in the rise of violent crime.
Earlier this year figures showed there had been a sharp increase in violence and sex offences in the West Mercia area, with overall crime rising by 13 per cent.
The amount of crimes in the force area had risen from 75,600 to 85,400 in the year up to September 2017, with rises in knife crime and robbery.
However, at the time Mr Campion insisted the figures were in line with the national picture, and that he was reassured that more people had come forward to report crime.
