Police chief hails fall in crime

But police chiefs vowed to keep up their fight against crime after recording a rise in theft and gun offences.

About 10,000 fewer crimes were recorded across the county last year.

Drug offences, fraud and forgery, burglaries and knife crimes have also fallen.

The force, which is facing big cuts to its budget, this week released its annual recorded crime statistics for the financial year April, 2010 to March, 2011 compared with the previous 12-month period.

They show a drop in the total number of offences of nine per cent, down 10,128 to 102,741 offences.

Chief Constable Med Hughes said: “While already preparing for the financial challenges ahead, crime has significantly fallen for the fourth year in a row.

“This is great news for South Yorkshire and testament to the hard work of the men and women of the county’s Force who will continue to fight crime, patrol the streets and protect the public. 

“Sustaining this will be challenging with South Yorkshire Police set to lose £40 million over the next four years, especially as partners’ budgets are also being reduced. 

“We are likely to see a rise in some crime categories but our job is to keep crime down and we are committed to achieving that.”

Total vehicle crime has fallen by 2,879 crimes—a drop of 18 per cent to 13,381.

This figure includes theft of motor vehicles—down 990 to 4,510 offences and theft from motor vehicles—down 1,889 crimes to 8,871.

There were 4,271 fewer criminal damage offences compared with the previous financial year, a reduction of 17 per cent to 20,579.

Drug offences were down six per cent by 314 crimes to 5,036. Fraud and forgery offences fell 30 per cent from 3,274 to 2,289—a drop of 985.

Theft and handling stolen goods offences were up eight per cent—by 1,965 to 27,303—which Mr Hughes put down to an increase in metal thefts.