Police have hailed a further, 18 per cent fall in recorded crime by 43 police forces in England and Wales for the four weeks to June 7, compared to the same period in 2019. However senior police continue to exclude the country’s largest volume crime, fraud, which is recorded by centrally by Action Fraud – and which, even three months after Covid-19 lockdown, is still only ‘providing a reduced service’.
This is the third crime update since the beginning of lockdown restrictions across England and Wales. Previous provisional reporting showed a 28 per cent fall in recorded crime for the 4 weeks to 12 April, and a 25 per cent fall for the four weeks to 10 May. As the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says, criminals will look to exploit what opportunities they can and the public are encouraged to continue staying vigilant and reporting crime.
Overall recorded crime has begun to slowly trend back towards 2019 levels, while still remaining significantly lower compared to last year, according to the NPCC. The upward trend across snapshots reflects the gradual easing of lockdown measures, and was expected by policing as more changes were announced by the UK and Welsh Governments.
Sustained falls were again recorded for residential burglary, vehicle crime (including theft of and from a vehicle), rape, assaults (including both Grievous Bodily Harm and Actual Bodily Harm) and robbery committed against individuals, and shoplifting. Forces also continued to see decreases in call volumes to 999 and 101, and in the number of missing persons cases. While still observing a fall of two per cent, this snapshot shows mental health related cases slowly reaching 2019 levels again.
As for fraud, the UK fraud prevention trade body Cifas continues to warn of the ever-changing tactics that scammers are using to extract money and information. For instance scammers claim to be NHS contact tracers offering a home visit to carry out a test. The scam is designed to gain access to people’s homes to steal goods. Fraudsters offer bogus government loans and grants linked to claims for Universal Credit; and run fake adverts, quizzes and offers of giveaways on social media, all seeking to harvest details that can be used for identity theft.
NPCC Chair Martin Hewitt said: “The vast majority of the public have followed the rules in place to limit the spread of the virus, and as a result we have seen sustained reductions in crime over the course of the lockdown period. It is no surprise that as more people are able to move around freely, we will begin to see movement towards previous levels, however this is a gradual change. We are reassured to still be observing significant falls in crime overall.
“As measures continue to ease, forces will bear down on crime and do all they can to try and prevent it rising to pre-lockdown highs. Forces continue to make use of any additional capacity to do more proactive policing in their communities. Brilliant work is taking place to reduce backlogs in complex investigations ensuring justice is done for many victims and removing criminals from the streets.”
