Crime drops again

Overall crime fell by 13.2% in the period from April 1st, 2010 to March 31st this year.

“Once again I am pleased to report that crime in the Coleraine area has been reduced,” said Commander Thompson at last Monday night’s DPP meeting in Portstewart Town Hall.

“The reduction this year is 13.2%, which means 552 less victims of crime last year.

“Since 2007, when we investigated 5310 crimes, crime has been steadily reduced to today’s rate. Over this four year period there has been 1667 less victims of crime.

“All of our crime types have seen a reduction over the last 12 months. This means less violent crime, less burglary, less theft and less criminal damage.

“Significant work has been carried out by my officers with other agencies into increasing the safety of everyone in the Coleraine community, and I believe the end of year figures are an indication that community safety and quality of life is improving in the area.

“In addition to crime, the other quality of life issue affecting the community is anti-social behaviour.

“Our target over the last three years was to work with victims and partners to reduce anti-social behaviour by 15%.

“We have managed to exceed this target and have reduced anti-social behaviour by 25.4%, which equates to over 1,000 less incidents.

“There is still work to be done however, and we are committed to making estates safer and supporting victims of crime.

“We particularly want to support victims of crime through the judicial process and also to use discretion as an agreed method of disposing with cases.

“We will continue to target the small number of criminal elements who carry out the majority of crime in this area with a view to putting them out of business.

“This is something we cannot do alone, so I am asking for your help in reporting all crime, criminality and suspicious activity.

“I also ask that you make it as difficult as possible for criminals by securing your property including homes, holiday homes, caravans, vehicles, plant machinery, tools and oil tanks.

“Over the next 12 months we want to build on the success of the last two years and we want to put into action what we have set out in our commitments document, which was circulated to every home in Northern Ireland.”

Vice-chair of the DPP, Mrs Patricia McQuillan, hailed the ‘fantastic work’ of the officers with the other agencies.

“This shows that partnership does work, there is some fantastic work going on,” she said.