Call for more cash as crime soars in the county

A DRAMATIC increase in crime in County Durham has been attributed to a change in the way incidents are recorded.

Crime in the county has gone up almost a third on last year, leading police and crime commissioner Ron Hogg to call for a review of police funding.

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics show that crime in County Durham went up by 28 per cent, with the largest increase being in public order offences which more than doubled with a 108 per cent increase.

Miscellaneous crimes agains the person went up 54 per cent while robbery rose by 40 per cent. Violent crime with no injury shot up by 86 per cent on the previous year.

Only non-domestic burglary, drug offences and possession of weapons crimes saw a decrease over the period. Domestic burglary went up by 11 percent and sexual offences rose by 21 per cent.

However, police blame the rise on a change in the way that crimes are recorded.

A Durham Constabulary spokesman said: “Improvements in crime reporting and a drive from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC) towards the integrity of police forces’ crime recording data has contributed to this rise.

“This has been reflected nationally in figures from other forces. The people of County Durham and Darlington can be assured of our continued commitment to making sure our communities are the safest they can be.

“We will do all we can to tackle offences and support the victims of crime.”

However, not all counties have seen a rise in crime despite the change. Total recorded crime in North Yorkshire and Cumbria dropped by two per cent.

Only Northumberland, with a 33 per cent rise in crime, had a higher increase than County Durham.

Mr Hogg confirmed the change in the way HMIC records data and said a number of crimes had been reclassified.

He said: “This has had a big impact on offences which fall into the “violent crime” category, which in turn affects overall crime figures for County Durham and Darlington.

“The rise in crime figures is partly about the way crime is recorded, but I’m also worried about police funding.

“We lost about 25 per cent of our police officers since 2010 and I have been arguing that crime would rise and it is rising.

“What is concerning me is the rise in traditional crimes, such as an increase in burglaries that are going up quite considerably. We need a review of police funding and we need to make sure that the pot for policing is bigger.”