POLICE officers are celebrating after the Denby Dale and Kirkburton wards were crowned as having the lowest burglary rates in West Yorkshire.
Inspector Dave Barnett, of the Kirkburton and Denby Dale Neighbourhood Policing Team, said between the two wards there were just 2.2 house burglaries per 1,000 people per year – about 75 burglaries in total.
In comparison the Ashbrow area of Huddersfield suffered an average of 16.6 burglary dwellings per 1,000 of the population – roughly 300 raids each year.
The Kirklees average is 8.2.
Insp Barnett, said: “It’s a ridiculously low figure, I think it’s brilliant.
“We’ve had about a 25% reduction in burglaries.
“It was already low and we’re keeping it lower.”
Insp Barnett said that one of the reasons for the exceptionally low crime figures was that there were several high profile road policing operations ongoing from neighbouring forces.
He added: “There’s quite a lot of police vehicle movement in and out of our area.
“Recently there was a crackdown where they were stopping everyone and we heard that local people were pleased that they were being stopped.
“The confidence in police here is the highest in Kirklees and we know that people are willing to report their suspicions so that we can record that and move to what they’re telling us.
“Burglary is not the only crime that’s low here, although I’m still concerned about the number of thefts from vehicles.
“We still need people to stop leaving their mobiles and sat-navs in cars.”
