Crime falls in Brentwood

5:01pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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CRIME in Brentwood has fallen in every comparable category this year, according to statistics released by Essex Police.

Eight categories of statistics have been published, and numbers have fallen in six of those in 2007/08 compared to 2006/07.

The most common offence was antisocial behaviour, with 3,333 recorded incidents this year. This has been reduced from 3,504.

Instances of burglary fell from 324 to 308 this year, and robberies are down by a quarter from 47 to 30.

Vehicle thefts are slightly down to 181 from 184, and thefts from vehicles have been reduced from 501 to 424.

Instances of criminal damage fell from 1,094 to 804.

Police had no figures available for instances of serious violent crime and assault with injury in 2006/07 so no comparison could be made.

However, the figures reveal that there were 25 serious violent crimes between July 2007 and June 2008, with 318 assaults with injury during the same period.

Chief Insp Keith Dobson, district commander for Brentwood, said: "I'm extremely proud to be heading a very determined police team here in terms of neighbourhood policing and in the response teams that we have.

"A number of the tactics that have been employed since my arrival have involved use of covert automatic number plate recognition systems to create a ring of steel around Brentwood to tackle transient criminals in the area.

"We have put metal detector gates on train stations and to deal with alcohol-driven offences in the town centre and all this seems to be bearing fruit for us.

"I am extremely pleased to see that this is contributing to a fall in crime in the area."