Recorded crime rises in Dacorum over last year

Recorded crime in Dacorum has risen in the last year, new figures show.

Office for National Statistics figures show Hertfordshire Constabulary recorded 9,427 crimes in the year to September – up by 9% on the 8,660 the year before. However, further figures show the overall number of estimated crimes across England and Wales remained below pre-pandemic levels.

The crime survey for England and Wales showed around 9.1 million offences were committed in the year to September – down 10% on the 10.2 million committed in the year to March 2020, the last full year before the pandemic.

Police recorded figures, which only include the crimes logged by the police, show 5.5 million crimes (excluding fraud) were recorded in the year to September – 13% up on the 4.9 million logged the year before.

Tiff Lynch, deputy national chair at the Police Federation of England and Wales, said the rise in crime means "the safety and welfare" of police officers is at risk.

Ms Lynch said: "For the public to have the police they deserve, we must be able to retain the experienced officers we have and attract the talented and dedicated individuals we need by offering fair pay, staff levels that do not represent a threat to our officers, and ensure the kit and the support so desperately needed is provided."

Meanwhile, recorded sexual offences across England and Wales reached a record high, with police forces logging 199,021 sex crimes in the year to September, up 17% on the 12 months before. It was also up 22% compared with the year ending March 2020, prior to the coronavirus pandemic – crime levels were greatly reduced during the lockdown periods.

Of these, 70,633 (35%) were rapes – a 20% increase from the 59,104 recorded in the 12 months to March 2020. In Dacorum, police recorded 293 sexual offences – up from 256 the year before.

Minister for Policing, Crime and Fire Chris Philp said: "Overall crime in England and Wales has dropped by 50% since 2010, excluding fraud and computer misuse, and since December 2019 there have been reductions in the number of burglaries, cases of serious violence and murder – which are all still lower than before the pandemic.

"But I am clear that there is much more to do, particularly to protect women and girls. We need to stop rapes from happening and put more predators behind bars. With huge efforts underway across the criminal justice system, we are now starting to see signs of improvement in the number of charges and prosecutions.

"We are also working hard to make our streets safer, on track to deliver the pledge to hire 20,000 extra police officers, and are injecting public funds into interventions that have been shown to work, reducing violent crime, taking out organised criminal gangs and quelling our streets of drugs and antisocial behaviour."

Crimes recorded in Dacorum included:

3,409 violent crimes against a person – up from 2,940 the year before.

79 robbery offences, a rise of 34%.

3,560 theft offences, an increase of 9%.

960 offences resulting in criminal damage and arson, up by 6%.

306 drug offences – a decrease of 8%.

71 incidents of possession of weapons, such as firearms or knives.