Clowne, Creswell and Whitwell: Burglary and stopping drug use should be priority, residents say

Thousands of people responded to the Derbyshire’s community engagement project, Over to You, during the course of eight months.

Up to the end of March 2014, crime levels increased by 2.4 per cent or 1,239 crimes to a total of 52,534 crimes.

The results show that burglary is the public’s number one priority, at 42.4 per cent, followed by drug use at 41.1 per cent, drug dealing and supply at 35.5 per cent, child abuse and child exploitation at 31.8 per cent and speeding at 25.2 per cent.

Over half of respondents, 53.4 per cent, said they thought that crime and anti-social behaviour levels had stayed the same in their area while the remainder were fairly evenly split between levels increasing and decreasing.

Police and Crime Commissioner, Alan Charles, said: “The results of this year’s survey are very reassuring and show that we remain very much in touch with the public in terms of addressing the crime areas that cause the most fear among our communities.”

“Tackling drugs, safeguarding children and addressing acquisitive crime, including burglary, are included in my current Police and Crime Plan and we are already well on the way to improving outcomes through the introduction of various crime prevention/early intervention schemes.”

“The Over to You project is critical to ensuring our safety strategies continue to reflect public need and whenever new concerns emerge, it is my duty to address them. Now that we have the results of this feedback, we can begin to examine where we can enhance our performance and reduce the impact of these crime types further.”

A total of 3,455 questionnaires were completed, 776 of which were done so online.

When asked what number people would use to contact police in a non-emergency, more than half of respondents said they knew of the existence of the 101 number.