FEWER people are falling victim to crime in West Yorkshire.

New figures released by West Yorkshire Police show a 3% fall - and the number of violent crimes is also going down.

There were 3,247 fewer offences in the first six months of this year, April to September, when compared with the same period in 2005.

The total number of crimes was down from 129, 456 to 126,209.

The largest reductions were seen across the priority areas of vehicle thefts, burglaries elsewhere which includes commercial premises, handling and fraud and forgery.

The majority of police forces have experienced increases in violent crime and West Yorkshire is no exception, but work is on-going to reverse the rising trend and in the last six months there has been a 6.4% reduction compared with the same period last year. In the six months of 2006, police dealt with 26,336 violent crimes, compared to 28,139 last year.

Acting Chief Constable Julia Hodson said: "These latest results show the hard work that is being done by our officers and staff to tackle crime across the country and come just weeks after the Force's good performance was highlighted in a Government report.

"West Yorkshire is one of the most improved police forces in the country and we have seen some marked reductions in priority crimes such as vehicle theft.

"There has been a small rise in robberies and burglaries, but still there are less than eight robberies a day across the county, which is a significant reduction on previous years - in 2002 there were 17 every day.

"The current number of burglaries is also less than half that of four years ago.

"We are focusing our attention in these areas to try to bring about reductions, an example of which is the Force's current crime campaign Strikeback.

"At this time of year we traditionally see a rise in crime as the evenings draw in and criminals operate under the cover of darkness. The dark nights provide more opportunities for burglars but we aim to be on the front foot in tackling this type of crime."

She added that the public could help.

"People can also play a role in the fight against crime and can take simple steps to avoid falling victim to crime. General home security measures can be implemented to deter opportunist burglars and I would encourage people to leave lights on at home and keep keys and handbags out of sight."

Ann Liston, who chairs the West Yorkshire Police Authority's Performance Review Committee, said: "It's good to see that crime levels are still falling across the majority of crime types, but it is particularly pleasing to see that levels of violent crime have started to fall.

"This has been a priority area for scrutiny by the Performance Review Committee and the Force Command Team has worked hard to turn this around."