Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Violent crime figures shock
Thursday 11th March 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Violent crime is a greater threat to people in the West Midlands than almost anywhere else in the country – and the rate of gun crime is second only to London.
West Midlands Police should do more to tackle robberies and reduce violence, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Download the full crime reports – get the national police force comparison table here and the police report card here
The region has 11 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, behind only Nottingham which has 11.6.
Gun crime is also only slightly behind the Metropolitan Police’s figures.
Today the region’s top policeman, Chris Sims, attacked the report , saying it was “less than helpful” to compare the West Midlands’ crime rates with rural areas.
The findings form part of a new report card, which rates police forces across more than a dozen categories and reveals the cost per household of running the service.
It does praise West Midlands Police, the second largest force in the country, for being “excellent” at protecting the public from “serious harm”. It said it is “particularly strong” at tackling serious crime.
It found that people living in the Staffordshire are at a higher risk of violent crime than in similar areas, and officers are solving fewer violent offences, burglaries, robbery and vehicle crimes.
Staffordshire Police was “poor” at solving crimes, but “levels of public confidence are high”.
The West Mercia Police area, which includes Kidderminster and Shropshire has seen a steady reduction in crime and officers are rarely withdrawn from local policing, so the public get a “good, consistent service”.
By Crime Correspondent Mike Woods
Sponsored Links
UK News
Most Commented
- Host of clubs chasing Wolves star Matt Jarvis
- Wolves confirm interest in Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson
- Chris Hughton still favourite but Albion will not be rushed
- Ray Wilkins in shock link with West Brom job
- Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson 'will have ideal grounding at Wolves'
- Bjorn: 'I'd love to play for Wolves'
- Danny Batth: 'My heart is still set on making the Wolves first-team'
Business Awards
Read the full story here
Full coverage of awards celebrating the region's best businesses.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
LIVE traffic updates
Road, rail and airport - latest
Our new, live traffic and travel updates service - check before you set out.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
The answer to this is discipline which should be installed at home from an early age and carried through at school. This would in turn lead to mutual respect for other people and property.
Unfortuantely discipline and respect have been eroded over the past twenty years by the PC brigade and inept leadership in local and central government.
It really is time to get back to basics and reintroduce a stricter punishment regime both at home and at schools. Only be educating people from an early age, with the deterrent of punishment to fit the wrong-doing will inroads be made.
Prevention is better than cure and would be more cost effective i.e. policing and jail costs.
Report abuse
If they reported what percentage of the crimes were committed by whites I’m sure it would shock us.
Report abuse
Spot on Frank but I think we all know that they will not tell us. The gags, blinkers and shackles are on making it very difficult to find out all the facts.
Report abuse
Or what percentage were committed by drug addicts, or what percentage come from a poverty stricken background.
The vast majority of people of any colour are not violent criminals. Try looking further than the colour of peoples skin!
Report abuse
The findings don’t seem to compare the West Midlands just to rural areas.
I also read today that Police watchdog Denis O’Connor, has expressed concerns over the national number of complaints regarding anti-social behaviour; it claims a quarter of the 3.6 million reports a year are being ignored.
So this I feel, is just the tip of the ice-berg. Alas, what do you expect to happen when police stations aren’t even accesible to the public? When policing is a wholy political issue? It’s more than just an insult, it’s a disgrace.
Report abuse
It’s not actually as bad as they try and make out. The rise in violence is only on paper. The increase is due to the police prosecuting more people than they used to, meeting quotas and arrest targets, using discretion by the police has nearly all but disappeared. 21st century is not about the safety of the public but making as many arrests as is possible and dishing out fines like hotcakes.
Report abuse
I actually think it’s worse, that policing is more focused on propaganda than arresting (and charging) criminals? In the Midlands you have police stations closed off to the communities they serve, stretching resources of other areas (that’s if they even attend). We also seem to have a judicial system that routinely slaps hardened criminals, yet comes down like a ton of bricks on the rest of us. So despite the statistics, targets, comparisons, and promises I think both the public and the hard-working police can see just how ineffective these policies actually are. The paper over the cracks is wearing thin.
Report abuse
When I become a victim of the rise in violence I do hope that it only on paper.
Report abuse
If we compare West Midlands Police with only Greater Manchester and the Metropolitan police, all of which cover large urban areas with dense inner city populations,so we compare like with like, the ONLY category in which WMP comes out as worst is assault. In 3 categories, it comes out BEST by a considerable margin, and in the other 2 exceeds the performance of the Met considerably. And,what is more, for those who wish to complain about costs, West Mids costs are LOW per household and the other two HIGH. Your reporter is giving a totally false picture to those readers who want to jump on bandwagons rather than examine the figures for themselves.
Report abuse
But Jan, we are not interested in the figures for the GMP or the Met, only the WMP where the readers live and work in. As for “best” or “worst” categories, as far as I am concerned this is a poor analogy, as any crime is bad.
All aboard the bandwagon eh, why not? when it affects the quality of life and feeling of security.
Report abuse
“….“levels of public confidence are high”….
Not in Wombourne, confidence is low! The Police station is shut most of the time and police presence is negliable. I did see a “Police person” recently and it caused both my wife and I to comment how unusual it was. So we stopped him to chat. Nice guy, very friendly and communicative but, all to quickly, he told us the area he covered and we realised how thin the cover really is. Sadly, I haven’t seen him since and that was probably six months ago!
The answer is simple…be draconian. You know what is wrong…so dont do it! Or, be locked up, suffer the consequences and learn from it!
Let’s stop the “mamby pamby” fines and sentences…get rid of the ones who cause the trouble…and then their replacements… At some point the message will get across that normal decent people are sick and tired of the scum that ruin our daily lives!
Strong, but sadly, true…
Moriarty the “sick and tired of all the crap going on…”
Report abuse
Have you been reading George Orwell’s 1984?
Report abuse
Its as simple as…..Spare the rod and spoil the child.
Britain start paying decent wages and stop taxing so heavily so both parents don’t have to go out and work and then one of them can stay at home and concentrate on bringing up their children with proper ethics and virtues instilled upon them.
Report abuse