July 19, 2019 - 1283 views
Commenting on the Crime Figures for England and Wales for the year ending March 2019 published yesterday, Deputy Chief Constable Richard Debicki acknowledged the challenges, but said the focus remains on key areas to make North Wales the safest place in the United Kingdom.
DCC Debicki said; “Although the reporting of sexual offences has increased, I believe this reflects the confidence of victims to report such crimes.
“I am pleased that the figures continue to show that people in North Wales are at low risk of being a victim of personal and household crime with the force sitting lowest nationally for personal crime and second lowest for household crime.”
“The figures also show that people continue to have confidence in North Wales Police and what we do as we focus on the Police and Crime Commissioner’s plan to tackle the key areas of organised crime, domestic violence, modern slavery and human trafficking and sexual abuse.”
DCC Debicki added “We have an excellent relationship with our communities with people willing to pass information to us to help bring offenders to justice and we are grateful to them for their support.
"Similar to other forces we are dealing with the changing nature of crime including online fraud, cybercrime and other crimes perpetrated online, such as child sexual abuse. The fact that people have confidence in us is a credit to the dedication of officers and staff across the force who continue to work hard to meet the ever changing demands.”
It should be noted that changes in the way crime figures are recorded have resulted in increases for all forces in recent years.
DCC Debicki said; “We are committed to improving the integrity of our crime recording which is borne out in the HMIC crime data integrity inspections.
"We believe the higher rates of reported crimes in North Wales reflect that commitment. However, we are not complacent and we have dedicated resources and initiatives to tackle crime across the board.”
