“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital”.
We have always stated that, as a newspaper, our objective is not to frighten people or dissuade business from coming to the borough by churning out court report after court report from the across the region. We pick up on one or two in a week but that is about it.
What we would rather do, is have a reasoned debate about crime in the borough and establish whether Thurrock is a safe ( or relatively safe) place to live in.
We are also interested as to whether the recession is having an impact on crime trends in the borough.
Over the next few months, we will aim to interview key players in the criminal justice arena to establish the true picture of crime in Thurrock.
Here are the stats:
Burglary
02-03: 1704
03-04: 2078
04-05: 1774
05-06: 1732
06-07: 1815
07-08: 1915
08-09: 1685
Criminal Damage
02-03: 3694
03-04: 3985
04-05: 3539
05-06: 3121
06-07: 3346
07-08: 3061
08-09: 2645
Drugs
02-03: 199
03-04: 215
04-05: 263
05-06: 250
06-07: 228
07-08: 255
08-09: 334
Fraud
02-03: 1269
03-04: 1416
04-05: 1083
05-06: 820
06-07: 1336
07-08: 919
08-09: 709
Robbery
02-03: 119
03-04: 186
04-05: 215
05-06: 150
06-07: 201
07-08: 187
08-09: 176
Sexual Offences
02-03: 144
03-04: 141
04-05: 120
05-06: 131
06-07: 126
07-08: 126
08-09: 103
Violence Against The Person
02-03: 2499
03-04: 3068
04-05: 3123
05-06: 2601
06-07: 2426
07-08: 2252
08-09: 2209
On the face of it: Burglary, Criminal Damage, Violence Against The Person, Fraud, Robbery, Sexual Offences, Violence Against The Person are all falling.
The next two questions are: How many people were detected/caught/charged? How many people were convicted?
That information is not so easy to come by. It used to be that many police forces would put their annual reports in public places. As part of those reports you could see the stats in full including detection rates.
Thurrock Police are very accomodating (usually) but some may say that the fact that the detection rates for all these crimes are not so readily available plays into the hands of those who say there is something to hide or that the stats are political weapons which are making the police’s job so much more difficult.
We contacted the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership (TCSP) and asked for the “Detection” stats but were told that to get such information, we would need to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to Essex Police.
Which sort of begs a question as to the purpose of the TCSP? If they came down my street in one of the many Community Engagement Days. They could tell me how many burglaries there had been or rapes or drug offences or frauds but they cannot or will not tell me how many people have been caught.
One would have to wait anything between 20 and 40 days while they submitted an FOI. So a person would be within their rights to believe that 2209 acts of violence went undetected; that 103 rapists are still at large and 1685 burglars about to break into your house tonight.
Of course that isn’t true but it could be seen as poor control of information and hardly fulfilling the task of reassuring the public.
Last month, Mr David Amess ,MP for Southend asked the Home Secretary in the House of Commons
“What the crime detection rate for Essex police force was in each of the last two years for which figures are available?”
The reply was: “The sanction detection rate for all offences detected in Essex was 32% in 2007-08 and 35% in 2008-09”.
So, YourThurrock journalists need to go out and do some research. It will be interesting as to what we will find out.
This isn’t a blame game, far from it. We would just like to establish the true picture of crime and disorder in Thurrock in 2010.
Move along now…….
