Crime has fallen overall in Cumbria between April 2023 and March this year, although drug offences and murders have risen.
The county’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner David Allen revealed the latest statistics at his Public Accountability Conference this week.
Between April 2023 and March, crime decreased by 8.3% compared to the previous 12-month period, with 3,227 fewer crimes recorded.
When people called 999 over the last year, 94.7% of calls were answered within 10 seconds – the national target is 90% – and 95.7% of the 11,1969 101 calls received were answered within five minutes.
Positive outcome rates increased to 19.4% from 14.8% in the same time frame. A positive outcome refers to when a criminal has been correctly identified and has faced the appropriate sanction or takes part in a restorative justice programme, if applicable.
This includes sanctioned detections – like people being charged, cautioned, or given a penalty notice for disorder – and community resolutions, which are defined as the resolution of a less serious offence or anti-social behaviour incident, where an offender has been identified, through informal agreement between the parties involved as opposed to progression through the traditional criminal justice process.
| Crime type | 2023/2024 | 2022/2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 35,568 | 38,795 |
| Anti-social behaviour | 4,597 | 4,922 |
| Violence against the person | 15,415 | 16,900 |
| Drug offences | 1,664 | 1,143 |
| Possession of weapon | 537 | 462 |
| Rape | 533 | 527 |
| Shoplifting | 2,250 | 2,047 |
| Other sexual offences | 1,055 | 1,184 |
| Burglary | 1,308 | 1,581 |
| Criminal damage | 4,336 | 4,998 |
| Hate crime | 668 | 917 |
| Cyber crime | 1,809 | 2,116 |
| Firearms | 15 | 28 |
| Violence with injury | 4,607 | 4,942 |
| Knives and sharp weapons | 161 | 150 |
| Domestic abuse | 6,123 | 6,608 |
| Killed & seriously injured | 273 | 294 |
| Public order | 3,337 | 4,702 |
While drug offences increased by 45.6% compared to the previous year, positive outcomes reached 80.2%. The commissioner said this was a result of Cumbria Constabulary carrying out a greater number of stop searches since the end of 2022.
Shoplifting offences have increased by 9.9% compared to the same period last year – but, said the commissioner, the positive outcome rate for shoplifting was 36.8%. Possession of weapon offences increased by 16.2%, with 75 additional offences recorded.
Cumbria also saw a rise in homicides, increasing from one to four. Offences involving knives or sharp weapons also increased, with 11 extra reports in 23/24.
Sexual offences – including rape – have fallen, with 123 fewer reports in 23/24 compared to the previous year.
Cumbria’s roads have seen a reduction in the number of killed or seriously injured collisions from 294 to 273. Fatal collisions reduced by 27%.
Anti-social behaviour has decreased by 6.6%, with the majority of reports being categorised as nuisance.
Arson and criminal damage have also decreased by 13.2% and domestic abuse decreased by 7.3% compared to the same time period last year with a positive outcome rate of 12.9%. Hate crimes reduced from 917 to 668. Violence against women and girls dropped from 9,378 to 7,797 – a 16.9% reduction.
Mr Allen said: “This is my first Public Accountability and I am pleased to see that crime has decreased in the county.
“Public Accountability Conferences provide me with the opportunity to publicly hold the constabulary to account over what the public’s concerns are around crime and how they are tackling these issues.
“Anti-social behaviour is an issue that was continuously raised with me during my campaign, so it is positive to see that this has decreased over the last year and, with the extra £1m funding to tackle anti-social behaviour hotspots, I expect these numbers to decrease even further in our next conference.
“I am the voice of the Cumbrian public within policing, so I intend to use these public meetings to hold the Chief Constable to account over the concerns of residents. I want to see the Police to continue to improve and be one of the best Constabularies in the country so that we can continue to protect Cumbria’s safety.
Chief Constable Rob Carden said: “I am extremely proud of all the positive results the force is achieving.
“This demonstrates the hard work and professionalism of our officers and staff, who are doing their utmost to keep Cumbria safe.
“One of the key ways we are continuing to improve performance is by being more visible in our communities.
“This follows moves such as the continued rollout of community beat officers as part of the expansion of neighbourhood policing.
“We have also recently launched Operation Enhance which will see extra police patrols in areas identified as hotspots for anti-social behaviour and/or serious violence across the county.”
