Warrington sees fall in every category of crime except one

Cheshire Police recorded 17,473 offences in Warrington in the 12 months to September, according to the Office for National Statistics.

That was a decrease of eight per cent compared to the previous year, when there were 19,061.

At 83.4 crimes per 1,000 people, that was slightly higher than the rate across England and Wales, which stood at 82.4.

The most common type of crime in the town was violent offences, of which there were 7,901 this past year – a decrease of one per cent.

Crime involving the possession of weapons such as firearms or knives saw the largest reduction with 54 offences, which was down 27 per cent

This was followed by theft offences (3,553 – down 20 per cent), criminal damage and arson (1,561 – down 18 per cent), drug offences (334 – down 11 per cent), public order offences (2,976 – down three per cent) and sexual offences (664 – a decrease of one per cent).

The only category that saw a rise was offences of stalking and harassment, of which there were 3,358 offences – a year-on-year increase of nine per cent.

A senior Cheshire Police official previously told the Warrington Guardian that this rise is due to the stalking and harassment category covering a wide range of offences.

Then-deputy chief constable Julie Cooke said: “I understand that residents may be concerned that the number of offences has risen over the past twelve months.

The type of crime that seems to be rising in Warrington when all others are falling

“However, it is important to note that the crimes within this category include a wide range of offences – such as harassment, stalking, malicious communications and controlling and coercive behaviour – which we have made significant progress over the past couple of years in improving how we identify and record the crimes.

“Here in Cheshire, we have a dedicated Harm Reduction Unit which helps to protect victims of stalking, but also adopts a pioneering approach to managing offenders.

“We have also invested in training our officers to help them identify these types of offences and better understand how to deal with incidents of stalking and harassment.

“This helps us to better engage with victims and encourages them to have the confidence to come forward and report what they are being subjected to, knowing that we will take it seriously.”

Around 5.8million offences were recorded across England and Wales in the year to September – a two per cent rise compared to the previous year – though there was a one per cent drop to 4.9million offences when excluding cases of fraud and computer misuse.

Police forces across the two nations logged the highest number of rapes and sexual offences in a 12-month period in the year to September, the figures show.

Around 63,100 rapes were recorded in the year to September, according to the Office for National Statistics, up 13 per cent from the previous period (56,100).

This was the highest recorded annual figure to date and included 17,400 offences between July and September – the highest quarterly figure.

The ONS said the latest figures may reflect several factors, including the ‘impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns on people’s willingness to report incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims’, and it urged caution when interpreting the data.