The Safer Stockton Partnership is a multi-agency group dedicated to reducing crime and disorder in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. We are currently working on our third Community Safety Plan, covering the period April 2005 to March 2008, which is based on six key issues. This report sums up the progress we have achieved in the first year - 2005/06.
1. DWELLING BURGLARY
Last year we reported that burglaries in dwellings were down to the lowest level since the 1970s. This year we have achieved a further 31% reduction, to 943 in total - despite the fact that dwelling numbers are going up. Dwelling burglary is one of the crimes which have the highest impact on fear of crime.
2. ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR (ASB)
We have put extra staff into our ASB Team - it now includes Police Officers, Council staff, and a Firefighter. In the last 12 months the Team have issued more than 1600 warning letters, got 59 people to sign Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, and the Courts have granted 19 Anti Social Behaviour Orders. We check back with people who complain to us about ASB - 88% of the people who replied said that the service was 'good' or 'excellent'.
3. DRUGS
We work closely with Stockton DAT (Drugs Action Team) to tackle drug-related crime, and its causes. We have achieved 10 of our 11 drug targets for the year, including a 29% increase in arrests for supplying class A drugs, to 179, the highest total since we started keeping these records.
4. VIOLENT CRIME
The 'headline level' of crimes of violence is up by 14%, but the numbers resulting in significant injury are down by 15%. We think that the overall increase is due to more police officers in town centres at night times, leading to more minor scuffles being recorded, and greater success in exposing the real level of domestic violence.
5. DELIBERATE FIRES
We achieved all seven of our targets for deliberate fires, with big reductions (23%) in both 'primary deliberate fires', in buildings and vehicles, 'secondary deliberate fires' (setting fire to rubbish, grassland etc), which were down by 18%.
6. TOTAL CRIME
Total crime was up by less than 1% on the previous year, but still down by 9.6% on the 'baseline year', 2003/04, which is the one the Government is measuring us against. We are aiming for a 20% reduction by the end of 2007/08. The rate of re-offending by young offenders keeps dropping, which is good news for the future. Our total crime rate is now the lowest of the five unitary councils in the Tees Valley (lower than Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland, and Darlington).