Community Safety

Our role includes challenging and supporting 27 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) and 14 Drugs Action Teams in the region to reduce people’s experience and fear of crime, address concerns about drugs and create safer, stronger communities and ensure those issues feature within Local Area Agreements and CDRP plans.

At the centre of this work are the Hallmarks of Effective Practice which have been introduced for CDRPs to check their own effectiveness and to identify areas of improvement. Our support initiatives include a Peer Support Programme.

Hallmarks of Effective Practice
Partnership working has contributed to a sustained fall in crime over the past ten years. However, the landscape in which Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships deliver has changed considerably since legislation was first introduced in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Working with stakeholders the Home Office carried out a formal review of the partnership provision of that Act. The suggested improvements were reflected in the Police and Justice Act 2006, and in subsequent regulations, which came into force in 2007.

The new statutory requirements form part of the Hallmarks of Effective Partnerships, which have been informed and influenced by stakeholders. These represent the key aspects that underpin effective delivery through partnerships. Partnerships use them to check their own effectiveness and to identify areas of improvement. The six are:

Empowered and Effective Leadership.
Visible and Constructive Accountability.
Intelligence-led Business Processes.
Effective and Responsive Delivery Structures.
Engaged Communities; and
Appropriate Skills and Knowledge.

For further information on guidance for effective partnerships please visit the Home Office’s web site.

Latest News

Crime in England and Wales 2008/09 - West Midlands News Release

The latest National Statistics on crime in England and Wales produced by the Home Office are released today (16 July 2009). They are based on results from the British Crime Survey (BCS) and crimes recorded by the police for the financial year 2008/09. Each source has different strengths and weaknesses but together they provide a more comprehensive picture of crime than could be obtained from either series alone.

Key findings for the West Midlands region are outlined below.

Changes between 2007/08 and 2008/09 by crime type

The BCS and police recorded crime have tended to track each other reasonably well in recent years. However, as in previous years, there have been some differences between the sources and these differences can be more marked at a regional level.13

Police Recorded Crime

 

England & Wales	West Midlands
Total recorded crime down 5%	Total recorded crime down 6%
Violence against the person down 6%	Violence against the person down 8%
Domestic burglary up 1%	Domestic burglary down 4%
Offences against vehicles down 10%	Offences against vehicles down 8%
Robbery down 5%	Robbery up 2%
Sexual offences down 4%	Sexual offences down 4%
Drug offences up 6%	Drug offences down 1%

13 For the crime types it covers, the BCS provides a more reliable measure of trends in crime as it has a consistent methodology and is

unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police, recording practice or police activity.

 

BCS

 

 

England and Wales	West Midlands
All personal crime stable (4% increase not statistically significant)	All personal crime stable
All household crime stable (5% increase not statistically significant)	All household crime stable
Violence stable (4% decrease not statistically significant)	Violence stable
Burglary stable (1% increase not statistically significant)	Burglary stable
Vehicle-related theft stable (no change)	Vehicle-related theft stable

 

Knife Crime

• The police recorded 4,649 offences involving knives in 2008/09, accounting for seven per cent of selected serious violent offences. 14 The number of recorded robbery offences involving knives increased by 7%, from 1,995 in 07/08 to 2,128 in 08/09.

 

Anti-social behaviour

• Sixteen per cent of adults had a high level of perceived anti-social behaviour overall, which was not significantly different from England and Wales overall.
• Twenty-four per cent of adults perceived drunk and rowdy behaviour as a problem in the area and 29% of adults perceived drug use or dealing as a problem in the area, both of which were not significantly different from England and Wales overall.
• All three perception measures remained stable between 2007/08 and 2008/09.

 

Confidence in police and local agencies

• Forty-eight per cent of adults agreed that the police and local councils were dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in the local area. 15
• One of the four police forces in the region (Warwickshire) recorded a lower proportion of adults who agreed that the police and local councils were dealing with the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter locally than the average for England and Wales overall.

14 Since April 2007 the Home Office has collected additional statistics from police forces on certain serious violent offences involving

the use of a knife or sharp instrument. A sharp instrument is any object that pierces the skin (or in the case of a threat, is capable of

piercing the skin), e.g. a broken bottle.’ Due to changes in the selected offences, definitional changes and small numbers of offences at

regional level comparisons between 07/08 and 08/09 are possible only for robbery. Selected offences include attempted murder,

wounding with intent to GBH, wounding or inflicting GBH and robbery.

15 This measure forms the basis of targets set by the Home Secretary for each police force to improve the level of public confidence.

Trend figures for this measure are not yet available at regional or police force level as the question was introduced in the middle of the

2007/08 survey year. The baseline for force targets is BCS interviews in the 12 months to September 2008. Data for September 2009,

including trend analysis, will be published in January 2010.