Crime is falling in Watford, Hertfordshire Police insist
5:07pm Tuesday 1st February 2011
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Crime in Watford is falling, police said today (Tuesday), despite new figures showing a street in the town has one of the highest crime rates in the country.
A new website launched by the Home Office invites users to type in their post code and find out how many offences happened in their neighbourhood during a one month period.
Types of crime recorded include burglary, anti-social behaviour, robbery, vehicle crime and violent crime.
Albert Road South has been listed as having the fourth highest level of overall crime (135 offences) in December 2010, and had the fifth highest rate of violent crime (25 offences) in the same
month.
However, Chief Inspector John Dempsey-Brench, from the Watford Community Safety Partnership, said the figures could be incorrectly interpreted as they relate to the number of crimes per 1,000
residents.
This, he explained, meant that because very few people live in Albert Road South, which is adjacent to Oceana nightclub and Sainsbury’s, it has a high crime
rate compared to other roads in towns across England and Wales.
He told the Watford Observer: “Watford is the only regionally designated entertainment centre, the only regionally designated shopping centre and regionally designated transport hub in the whole of
Hertfordshire.
“So we get ten to 15,000 people on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night; 5,000 on Thursday and a couple of thousand on other nights.
“Ignoring the town centre, we have a rise in shoplifting. All of these things are set against four houses [in Albert Road South].
“If this were the Meriden, where we have high-density housing, the figures are going to be incredibly low.”
Mr Dempsey-Brench also provided figures that show Watford’s overall crime level has actually fallen by 18 per cent over three years.
“Our anti-social behaviour is down 20 per cent; burglary, robbery and motor vehicle crime is down 18 per cent; and in real terms, comparing Watford now to three years ago, we have 3,700 fewer
crimes committed,” he said.
“That is 3,700 fewer victims, which is a massive reduction, but this website doesn’t reflect any of that.
“The fact that violent crime is coming down is proof that work done by the police, their partners, and the responsible approach by pubs and clubs is actually working and is addressing the issues.
Additional crime figures for Watford show public order offences are down by 12 per cent, robbery is down 30 per cent and violent crime is down 15 per cent from April to December 2010/11 compared to
the same period in 2009/10.
Mr Dempsey-Brench added: “When looking at the data for your locality, you need to take into account how this data is formulated.
“If you live in a high density populated area, the statistics will show different information to those living in a low density location.”
Watford Mayor Dorothy Thornhill said the figures proved “we are doing our job”.
“Albert Road South sees thousands of young people marching up and down it every weekend. It’s a key point of active policing,” she said.
“So I’m not surprised this has come up this high. It’s a sign we’re actually doing our job.
“Crime in the town centre is plummeting. Residents around there are actively involved with the police and the council.
“We understand there are issues and that’s why we’re actively policing the area but it will mean more crime statistics because they’re not getting away with anything.”
A Home Office representative said the figures were compiled by mapping crime figures to an anonymous point or the nearest street, “never the precise location and never a street with fewer than 12
postal addresses”.
She added: “They will be mapped to the next nearest location point. That causes some streets to be mapped differently. But that’s the way we’re trying to protect individuals. We cannot map every
single crime to the exact location because that would reveal the identities of the victims.”
To view the figures for your area, visit www.police.uk.
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