Islington police ‘reclaiming the night’ but robberies rise
A top officer has spoken of the hard work in reducing violent crimes last year.
Det Sup Steven Wallace said a big decrease in cases of GBH and other violence is due to clamping down on night-time trouble as well as a drop in gang fighting.
Crime overall dropped by two per cent in the 12 months to December 2011, with significant drops in gun and car crime, and religious or racist hate crime.
But instances of street robbery, including many iPhone snatches and burglary were on the rise, with around 1,200 robberies reported.
Homophobic crime also dropped by a massive 43 per cent.
Det Sup Wallace said: “We have been working to reclaim the night, targeting problem premises and robust about new licence applications.
“This has resulted in a massive and dramatic effect which we are aiming to continue.
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“The other big change is gang violence which we have seen far less of..
“Although street robbery went up at the end of 2011, it is now going in the right direction.”
Crime breakdown:
Overall crime – down two per cent from 27,940 in 2010 to 27,412 in 2011.
Violence Against the Person – down 11 per cent from 5,942 to 5,232
Rape –- up 30 per cent from 80 to 114
Personal robbery – up 30 per cent from 852 to 1,102
Burglary – up seven per cent from 2,626 to 2,815
Gun Crime – down 18 per cent from 3,017 to 2,450
Car crime – down 12 per cent from 3,082 to 2,712
Religious or racist hate crime – down 17 per cent from 478 to 395
Homophobic Crime – down 43 per cent from 132 to 75
