Yorkshire crime toll falls – but sex cases rise

The four Yorkshire forces recorded about 50,000 fewer crimes between them as offending in England and Wales dropped to its lowest level since 1981.

Home Office figures published yesterday show vehicle crime, robberies and house burglaries fell sharply in the region as the UK lurched out of recession.

But Humberside Police recorded a 20 per cent rise in sex offences between April 2009 and March this year, while South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire all reported slight increases.

Police only solved about one in four crimes and senior officers have warned forces will find it hard to improve because of budget cuts .

Humberside Police chief constable Tim Hollis welcomed the overall figures, which showed his force saw a 10 per cent drop in crime, but admitted "more needs to be done" to tackle sex offences.

He added: "The challenge during the year ahead is to maintain our success at a time when budgets are being reduced across the public sector."

The sudden increase in reports of sex offences came at a time when Humberside solved 40 per cent of rape cases – the best performance of any force in the country.

Supt Christine Kelk, who headed a working group aimed at giving rape and sexual violence crimes more priority within the force, said officers had worked more closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to improve conviction rates.

Other improvements have included the appointment of three independent sexual violence advisers who support victims all the way from when they make a complaint to when the case comes to court.

Supt Kelk said these changes had encouraged more victims to come forward.

West Yorkshire Police recorded a nine per cent drop in overall crime, and found more incidents of fraud and drug offences, but saw house burglaries rise by two per cent.

The force said, however, that more recent figures indicated its anti-burglary campaign, Operation Titan, was having an impact.

Assistant chief constable David Evans said: "The statistics show that burglary has increased slightly over the last year but thanks to the hard work which has taken place across the force, the figures from the last four months have shown an encouraging reduction compared with the same four months in the previous year.

"Operation Titan is about using the full range of our resources to tackle offenders and to improve home security measures in order to reduce burglary.

"We have entered challenging times financially and we will have to work not just harder, but smarter, in the years ahead to build on this very strong performance."

Crime fell by 13 per cent overall in South Yorkshire, where officers recorded one of the sharpest declines in violent crime nationwide.

South Yorkshire Police assistant chief constable Andy Holt said: "Over the coming years, the police service will continually be asked to deliver more for less.

"This means that continuing to reduce crime will be difficult but we are committed to delivering cost-effective, quality policing for the people of South Yorkshire."

North Yorkshire Police recorded a 13 per cent drop in overall crime – 54 offences for every 1,000 people in the force area – making it one of the safest places in the country to live.

Deputy chief constable Adam Briggs said: "We are determined, despite the challenges of the current financial climate, to maintain and even enhance performance in the years to come.

"We will not take our eye off the ball and become complacent."

Downing Street acknowledged that the figures were "clearly down", but said that they were "still too high".

"There are still 26,000 crimes against people in the country every day," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said .