Crime down over all in East Cheshire

 

Police in East Cheshire are continuing to target hotspots to drive crime down further.

Annual results of the British Crime Survey released today see an overall reduction in crime of 5% across the areas of East Cheshire.

Burglaries have fallen dramatically, with figures showing a 14% reduction in the number reported to police compared to 2010/2011 figures. Offences against vehicles, such as theft, have also gone down by 11%.

Chief Superintendent Mick Garrihy said: "We have dedicated teams of officers and staff who are successfully identifying those prolific offenders who are responsible for committing burglary offences in our area and bringing them to justice.

"In the last year we have met with success in prosecuting a number of burglars across our area. Reducing acquisitive crime remains one of our main priorities and although today′s figures are encouraging, we are not complacent and will continue to build on our success to protect the residents, businesses and visitors of East Cheshire."

Chief Inspector Darren Hebden, who heads up the crime teams in the Eastern area acknowledged robberies had been an issue last year. He said: "We are acutely aware of the rise last year and continue to work on a number of fronts to continue to reduce offences and therefore victims, and to make vulnerable business premises less of a target for offenders."

One of the reasons for an increase in reported offences is the rising confidence in the Eastern European migrant community to report crime to their local officers.

Chief Inspector Hebden explained: "The increase in the reporting of offences within this community is a welcome development as it indicates confidence in local policing. We now need to build on the increased information available to combat these crimes which have remained hidden before now and we would encourage anyone with any knowledge about this type of crime to come forward to local police to allow further progress to be made."

In response to the rise, detectives have made significant arrests he said. Adding: "During the year - a team of armed robbers from Manchester who were responsible for nine offences in the North of the area around Wilmslow and Mobberley have been arrested and they heve been charged with nine offences in the Cheshire area as well over 20 in the Greater Manchester Police force area. We are currently concentrating resources on arterial routes into Cheshire from Manchester to avoid this type of criminality recurring and drive crime down further.

"Although the overall trend for numbers of robberies are down, the peaks from last year were in the summer months and we will be targeting resources against this crime type in the coming months particularly in the parks and open spaces of the Crewe area."