Recorded crime rose by a third in Northumbria last year

RECORDED crime at Northumbria Police has gone up by a third in the year to March, an official report has shown.

The latest HMICFRS PEEL inspection, which examines force efficiency, reported a 33% increase in recorded crime at Northumbria.

This jump is down to a lack of resources and police officers, according to Jim Gray, Chairman of Northumbria Police Federation.

He said: “If you have fewer resources, you cannot prevent crime and you cannot detect crime. If we’re not there on the streets, if we haven’t got sufficient detectives, if we haven’t got sufficient specialist officers, then a rise in crime is an obvious consequence.

“We can’t hide this significant rise in crime behind what has become the standard mantra of ‘we’re recording crime better than we were’ anymore. No we can’t, because crime is going up, that is the reality. If you have less, you can only do less. And the consequence of that is that crime will increase. It is as simple as that and I am appalled that the Government can allow this to go on.

“We need more cash for our Force – Northumbria has been financially harder hit than any other Force in the country. Without enough money we cannot employ Police Officers to patrol, we cannot employ Police Officers to detect, and we cannot employ Police Officers to protect.”

The Force was rated “good” in the inspection published last month, which Jim said was a reflection of the hard work and commitment of his members.

“It is actually no mean feat for the Force to have achieved a HMIC assessment of ‘Good’, given that Northumbria is a relatively large Force, it has a large Force area, and it has a range of challenges, including a large population to police, city centres, inner-city areas, rural areas with unique challenges, football, many large events, ports, airport, etc etc, all in the context of the loss of 900+ Police Officers and an ever more challenging budgetary allocation,” Jim added.