Shropshire Star comment: A mixed message on crime
Nobody can celebrate the latest crime figures for West Mercia which show things have got worse, albeit only slightly.
But dig deeper and there is at least one crumb of comfort.
In recent months the impression coming out of London is that it is a capital in which the streets are descending into something akin to the Wild West, with an apparent relentless surge in stabbings and shootings claiming a toll of mostly young lives and leaving some London residents wondering whether it is safe to go out.
So let’s pare away all the other crime figures and look at knife crime. In the year to March there were 452 crimes involving knives. This is a drop of 18 from the previous year.
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We can be thankful that Shropshire is escaping the worrying trend being experienced elsewhere, including, rather surprisingly, just over the Welsh border into Dyfed-Powys. On that patch knife crime has risen from 97 to 130.
Overall, the figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in the West Mercia Police patch the number of crimes have risen from 80,936, to 84,342. As always, the details reveal a mixed picture, one of swings and roundabouts. For instance, criminal damage and arson are up, with robbery, violence with injury, and drug offences down.
Take your pick and draw your own conclusions - and explanations.
In the current climate of financial stringency, West Mercia has nevertheless continued to come up with bright ideas to sharpen up its act.
A few weeks ago the force announced that names and contact numbers for community officers were being released, allowing members of the public to make direct contact.
The overhaul of the force’s Safer Neighbourhood Teams aims to ensure that all communities have easy access to their local police officers.
The ONS says crime is fairly stable in England and Wales for most crime types. And putting this snapshot in context, recent decades have, according to the ONS, seen a fall in overall levels of crime. For ordinary members of the public the real story is not told through data but through experience. Every year there are tens of thousands of crime victims in West Mercia – and that only includes those crimes recorded by police. So stay vigilant.
