Violent crime in West Yorkshire has gone up 63% in 12 months up to June this year according to latest crime figures.
And overall crime has risen by almost a quarter.
But police chief’s say the rise in crime is largely due to ‘changes in recording practises’ and overall crime has risen by around 4%.
The Office of National Statistics recorded there were 54,706 reports of ‘violence against a person’ in our region compared to 33,312 year on year.
Sexual offences are up 12% which accounts for 581 more offences reported year on year, robbery is up 11%, theft 9% and burglary and drug offences have reported a 1% increase.
West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson said: “The levels of recorded violence against the person have increased, however this is in line with the national trend. This is partly due to the additional harassment offences now being included as violent crimes, improvements in crime-recording and increased confidence of victims to report offences to the police.
“The statistics released today give an overview but are not fully reflective of the difficult work West Yorkshire Police carry out on a day to day basis keeping our communities safe.”
West Yorkshire Police Temporary Deputy Chief Constable John Robins added: “We remain totally committed to reducing crime, re-offending and anti-social behaviour, protecting the vulnerable and supporting victims and witnesses.”
The force says it is currently recruiting additional police officers and Police and Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to meet demand, particularly for 999 calls.
Mr Robins added: “To help with this, we have also recruited additional call handlers in our contact centre. Currently emergency calls on the 999 system are up by nearly 10%, in comparison to the same weeks last year.
“However, we still answer all of these emergency calls within six seconds, on average. Maintaining that high standard does put pressure on our ability to answer non-emergency calls which too have risen over the last year.”
Police say an increase in safeguarding and missing person inquiries – with some 65 people reported missing to the Force each day – now make up a large part of their activities but are not reflected in the crime data.
Crimes and incidents can be reported to West Yorkshire Police in a number of ways, visit www.westyorkshire.police.uk/ClickB4UCall to find out more. Crimestoppers can be contacted on 0800 555 111 or for more information visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org .
In unrelated investigations, police would like to speak to the people pictured in the image gallery below. The people pictured in the images may be witnesses as well as suspects. If you recognise anyone, contact police on 101 quoting the reference number on the image caption.
