Fire-Raising, Housebreaking and Serious Assaults Fall in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde
Figures released by Police Scotland also show 162 more crimes of fraud against the same period last year and 29 more crimes of common assault against emergency workers – up from 400 to 429.
Chief Superintendent David Duncan, divisional commander for Renfrewshire and Inverclyde said: “The 2020-21 reporting period is unique, detailing a picture of reported crime from when we first entered lockdown through to early April this year.
“It will be some time before we can truly understand the impact the pandemic has had on crime levels - lockdown meant fewer people were on our streets and the policing landscape was unprecedented.
“What I can confirm, though, is that, throughout the pandemic, officers remained active in our communities, responding to concerns, gathering intelligence and keeping people safe.
“Compared to the same reporting period last year, they have detected 63 more crimes involving offensive weapons and removed them from our streets. They have helped reduce the number of house-breakings by 25, serious assaults by 41 and ten fewer crimes of fire-raising.
“Their dedication to their communities’ safety is reflected in the recent public confidence in policing survey which showed an increase from 40% to 53% this year.”
“Fraud has increased exponentially and online child sexual abuse is now a national threat. The implementation of our Cyber Strategy will ensure we continue to build capacity and capability to keep people safe in the virtual space.”
Hundreds of children have been safeguarded by police enforcement as reports of online child sexual increased during the last year. Police Scotland’s 2020-21 Quarter 4 Performance Report and Management Information showed there were a total of 1,966 child sexual abuse crimes recorded during the year, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year (1,857) and 24.9% greater than the five year average of 1,574.
The Performance Report outlines the safeguarding of 434 children through the enforcement of 649 National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) packages between September 2020 and March this year.
NOCAP packages provide intelligence and evidence which underpins investigations carried out to identify and arrest online child abusers.
The 2020-21 Q4 Performance Report will be presented to the Scottish Police Authority’s Policing Performance Committee on Tuesday, 8 June.
