Senior officers asked to explain Humberside Police’s poor record over crime

Only two of the 43 constabularies in England and Wales saw higher levels of total recorded crime than Humberside Police between June and August this year.

The force ranked in the bottom three for violent assaults causing injury and incidents of criminal damage, and is among the worst 10 for serious acquisitive crime and domestic burglaries.

Members of Humberside Police Authority asked for the league tables to better understand how the force is faring at a time when Government spending cuts mean it must save £22m over the next four years.

Senior officers have agreed to give them more detail about the force’s performance at a series of “joint information sessions” over the next few weeks.

The sessions will focus on violent crime and criminal damage, and consider why victims’ satisfaction with the police, which was improving, now appears to be “levelling off”.

Members will also ask officers why the force has performed more poorly than similar constabularies, with the gap “getting greater in some cases”.

The figures, included in a report to the authority’s policing committee, were released before the publication of crime data held by the Home Office, which today is expected to show offending levels rose in parts of the country between April and June this year.

Humberside Chief Constable Tim Hollis is one of several senior officers – including the former head of South Yorkshire Police, Meredydd Hughes – who have warned that crime could increase as budgets for police, councils and other public bodies are cut and unemployment rises.

Hull East Labour MP Karl Turner said: “These figures are worrying but not surprising. I have regular contact with Tim Hollis and I believe he is doing the best job he can with drastically reduced budgets.

“It is disingenuous of the Government to state that the quality of policing will be not affected when savage cuts to police officer levels are taking place. It is simply not possible.

“I am deeply concerned that as the cuts take further hold crime will continue to increase in Humberside and the public will ultimately end up paying the price.”

Shadow Home Office Minister Diana Johnson, MP for Hull North, said the force would lose 139 officers this year because of cuts to its budget.

She added: “This is combined with the wider Government cuts, focused most heavily on the most deprived communities, where we are seeing large-scale job losses across the public and private sector, a squeeze on living standards and fewer opportunities for young people to get into education, employment or training.

“The combination of all these and other factors can only make a difficult job harder for our police in trying to cut crime.”

In a separate report, Mr Hollis will inform the committee that the force has seen reports of anti-social behaviour fall from more than 50,000 in 2008-09 to fewer than 40,000 in 2010-11.

The number of reports dropped by 20 per cent last year in the East Riding, and by 14 per cent and 10 per cent in Hull and North Lincolnshire respectively, although a 17 per cent rise was recorded in North East Lincolnshire.

Mr Hollis will tell the committee that “much good work” is being done to tackle the problem in all the force’s divisions.

“Divisional differences will exist in the handling of anti-social behaviour and the care of victims,” his report states, “but the recent figures illustrate the continued reduction in the number of victims and repeat incidents across all areas.

“Considerable work...has been undertaken to improve the force’s level of service to victims and repeat victims of anti-social behaviour. The force will continue to refine and improve these processes and members will be updated on progress.”

The force said it would not comment on the figures until after the committee meeting, which is due to be held next Tuesday.