Borough ‘safer’ as crime down by 6%

DUP Councillor Alan Carson, who is chairman of the Policing and Community Safety Partnership, said it was ‘fantastic news’ for the area, making the borough a “safer place for people to live, work and visit”.

Councillor Carson said: “I know that there has been a lot of hard work over the last year to bring these figures down and it is through the cooperation of all people involved that this has been made possible.”

At a recent Policing Committee Meeting PSNI Craigavon Area Commander, Chief Inspector Anthony McNally, outlined steps the police had taken and attributed some of the success to the excellent partnership working between the PCSP, other statutory bodies and the community.

“There is a strong message being sent to criminals that they are not welcome here and if you do commit a crime, you will be caught. I would like to thank all involved for their time and effort over the last year to ensure that this Borough is one of the safest in Northern Ireland,” added Councillor Carson.

PSNI Craigavon Area Commander, Chief Inspector Anthony McNally added: “We are pleased to see this reduction in crime and it proves that we work better when we work together. However, there is no room for complacency in policing and we will continue to work with the communities we serve to reduce crime further and tackle the issues and concerns that matter to them.”

It was also reported that a third of crime is cleared by the PSNI which is also an increase on the same period last year.

According to the PSNI website, all crime in the E district area of Craigavon is down by 7.2% from April to December last year, compared to the same period the previous year.

In 2011/12 there were 4,119 incidents of recorded crime while last year there were 3,821 - a drop of almost 300 incidents.

However there was a 30% hike in drug offences during the same period with more the double the number of drug trafficking incidents.

There were just 25 drug trafficking incidents recorded in 2011/12 with 59 recorded last year.

Property crime is down by more than 11% with a huge drop in thefts from vehicles down by more than 36%.

Sexual offences rose by 8.9% though most serious sexual crime was down by 5.5%.

There was a significant drop in criminal damage offences down more than 22%. There were 774 incidents recorded from April to December last year compared to 995 the year before.

Violent crime against individuals was down by up to 7% while burglaries were on the rise up 5.2%.