Crime in Suffolk drops by nearly 20 per cent

Crime in Suffolk has dropped by nearly 20 per cent, including in cases of rape, hate crime and child sexual abuse, but worries remain.

Transcript

00:00 Well of course it's good news, we want to see levels of crime going down, which is good,

00:04 but, and the solving rate going up.

00:07 What I think we do need to remember of course is that a lot of crime is under-reported,

00:11 so for the figures that we have that is very, very encouraging, far better that way than

00:15 the other.

00:16 We still need to do what we can to get people to report, so we can record all crimes that

00:22 take place, but no I'm very encouraged by that and that's well done to everybody involved,

00:26 there's no question of that.

00:27 One really worrying statistic, I think it was just under 6,000 referrals for young people

00:32 at school in that partnership approach, so that the police are making sure education

00:37 establishments know in the last year just what they are aware of, recorded crime of

00:43 6,000, nearly 6,000 cases reported to schools where youngsters inadvertently witness it

00:49 or are involved.

00:50 And I think that is a huge worry for me because as I said at the meeting, we know children

00:57 involved be it directly or indirectly and this are highly likely to be the offenders

01:00 of the future.

01:02 Never mind the traumatic and mental distress it must cause them, particularly the younger

01:06 ones, so there's a lot to do on this still, so no room for any complacency.