Annual crime figures released

11 May 2010

This morning the Police Service of Northern Ireland released its annual statistics for 2009 / 10. During this period 109,139 crimes were recorded which is a decrease of 955 crimes (0.9%) on the previous year. There has also been an increase in the detection rate from 23% to 25.8%.

Speaking about the annual statistics Chief Constable Matt Baggott said:

“I am pleased to report that this year, despite the very difficult security environment in which we work, we have seen a decrease in the number of overall crimes recorded as well as an increase in the detection rate. However we will not be complacent and while the increased threat does impact upon the style and delivery of our service in some areas, we are determined that it will not prevent us working with communities to tackle crime and deal with the issues that communities want us to deal with.

“When I took up the position of Chief Constable last year I was very clear that there was a need for the police to work in partnership with the community. Much of my time to date has been spent trying to improve the systems and structures we have in place to make sure we are effective in tackling crime and have more officers out on the streets. I made a commitment to increase our visible presence in communities and to date we have almost 400 more officers delivering neighbourhood and response policing, more than at any other time in the last three years. Many more of my colleagues will be joining them in the coming months and by tackling bureaucracy, streamlining our systems and further improving our use of technology we will enable those officers to spend more time in communities.

“Of course behind every crime statistic, there is a personal story about an individual who has been the victim of crime. By focusing on that personal story, by dealing with it in a professional and protective manner, I know we can make a real difference. We still have much to do, our efforts will be focused on listening to communities, identifying local issues of concern and working together to solve them. We will continue our efforts to prevent people becoming victims of crime and where crimes occur bringing those responsible to justice.

“This has been a very important year for Northern Ireland. The PSNI has been working tirelessly towards making Northern Ireland a more secure place for everyone. We are already demonstrating our intent to build a safer future. This can only help us achieve the peaceful society that we all want, and that we are all striving towards."

Statistical Press Notice

The PSNI’s Statistical Report 1st April 2009 – 31st March 2010

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) today (Tuesday 11th May 2010) published its Statistical Report covering the period 1st April 2009 to 31st March 2010. This National Statistics publication includes details on the following areas for that period;

Recorded crime and detections (National Statistics)
Domestic abuse incidents & crimes
Hate incidents and crimes
Drug seizures and arrests
Statistics relating to the security situation (National Statistics)
Reported Injury Road Traffic Collisions (National Statistics)

Key Findings

1. Recorded Crime and Detections

There were 109,139 crimes recorded by the PSNI in 2009 / 10 compared with 110,094 in 2008 / 09, a decrease of 955 (-0.9%). Four of the 8 policing Districts experienced an increase in crime (ranging from +0.5% to +2.2%) whereas the remaining 4 Districts had a decrease (ranging from –0.4% to -5.2%).
Over the last ten years the highest level of crime was in 2002 / 03 when 142,496 offences were recorded. However, in recent years (2007 / 08 onwards) crime levels have remained relatively constant. The level of crime recorded in 2009 / 10 was 23.4% lower than the peak recorded in 2002/03 and was the second lowest level since 2000 / 01 (the lowest being in 2007/08 with 108,468 offences).
Crime decreased in three of the nine main offence categories (robbery, fraud and forgery and criminal damage) and increased in the remaining 6 offence categories (offences against the person, sexual offences, burglary, theft, offences against the state and other notifiable offences).
Robberies fell by 7 offences (-0.5%), fraud & forgery fell by 237 (-6.6%) and criminal damage offences fell by -1,971 (-6.9%).
Offences against the person increased by 412 (+1.4%), sexual offences increased by 1 offence (+0.1%), burglaries were up by 110 (+0.9%), thefts by 364 (+1.4%), offences against the state increased by 83 (+5.9%) and other notifiable offences increased by 290 (+5.5%).
Violent crime (i.e. offences against the person, sexual offences and robberies) increased by 406 offences (+1.2%) compared with the previous year.
The overall detection (clearance) rate increased by 2.8 percentage points from 23.0% in 2008 / 09 to 25.8% in 2009/10.
During 2009 / 10, crime detection rates increased in seven of the nine main offence classes and decreased in the remaining two compared with the previous year. Across the 9 offence classes the highest detection rates were recorded for Other notifiable offences (80.4%) followed by Offences against the state (48.9%), Offences against the person (35.4%) and sexual offences (24.7%). Fraud and forgery offences had a detection rate of 23.6%, for theft offences it was 23.1%, robbery offences 18.6%, criminal damage offences 12.3% and for burglary offences it was 11.5%.

2. Incidents and Crimes with a Domestic Abuse Motivation

There were 24,482 incidents with a domestic abuse motivation recorded by the PSNI in 2009/10, an increase of 891 (+3.8%) on the 23,591 incidents recorded in 2008 / 09.
The number of crimes recorded as having a domestic abuse motivation increased by 692 (+7.5%) from 9,211 in 2008/09 to 9,903 in 2009 / 10. The associated detection rate rose by 5.5 percentage points from 37.8% in 2008/09 to 43.3% in 2009 / 10.

3. Incidents and Crimes with a Hate Motivation

In 2009/10 the PSNI recorded 1,840 sectarian incidents, 1,038 racist incidents, 175 homophobic incidents, 58 disability incidents, 23 faith / religion incidents and 14 transphobic incidents. Compared with the previous year sectarian incidents increased by 245 (+15.4%), racist incidents by 48 (+4.8%), disability incidents by 14 (+31.8%) and transphobic incidents by 4 (+40.0%). Conversely, faith / religion incidents were down by 23 (-50.0%) and homophobic incidents were down 4 (-2.2%).
Compared with 2008 / 09, the number of crimes with a hate motivation in 2009/10 increased in three of the six hate crime types. Sectarian crimes were up by 247 offences (+24.3%), disability motivated crimes were up by 13 (+46.4%) and transphobic crimes increased by 2 (+100%). There were decreases in the remaining 3 hate crime types with racist crimes down by 59 (-7.7%), homophobic crimes down by 22 (-16.4%) and faith / religion crimes were down by 20 (-57.1%).
The detection rate was highest for homophobic crimes (18.8%), followed by that for sectarian crimes (16.9%), racist crimes (16.2%), disability crimes (14.6%) and faith religion crimes (6.7%). No transphobic crimes were detected during 2009/10.

4. Drug Seizures and Arrests

There were 3,319 drug seizure incidents recorded in 2009 / 10, an increase of 3.8% on the previous year.
Within Class A drug seizures, cocaine accounted for the most seizure incidents and the quantities of cocaine powder seized increased from 24.2 kg in 2008/09 to 27.5kg in 2009 / 10. The amount of ecstasy tablets seized also increased from 34,404 tablets in 2008 / 09 to 54,434 tablets in 2009/10.
Cannabis was the drug most commonly seized in 2009 / 10. However, the quantity of cannabis resin, herbal cannabis and cannabis plants seized was lower than in 2008 / 09.
There were 2,250 people arrested for drug related offences in 2009/10, an increase of 11.7% on the 2,014 arrested in the previous year.

5. Statistics Relating to the Security Situation

There were two security related deaths recorded during 2009 / 10, three fewer than in the previous year.
Shooting incidents increased by 25 from 54 in 2008 / 09 to 79 in 2009 / 10. The number of bombing incidents also increased from 46 in 2008/09 to 50 in 2009 / 10.
There were 46 casualties resulting from paramilitary style shootings in 2009 / 10, an increase of 26 on the previous year. Loyalists were responsible for 1 of these shootings whilst Republicans were responsible for the other 45.
The number of casualties resulting from paramilitary style assaults increased from 41 in 2008/09 to 81 in 2009/10. Loyalists were responsible for 69 of these (85.2%) with Republicans deemed responsible for the remaining 12 casualties (14.8%).
The numbers of persons arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act decreased from 174 in 2008/09 to 169 in 2009/10. The number of persons subsequently charged following arrest under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act fell from 40 in 2008/09 to 35 in 2009/10.

6. Reported Injury Road Traffic Collisions and Casualties

During 2009 / 10 there were 6,187 injury road traffic collisions which resulted in 101 deaths, 995 people seriously injured and 8,579 people slightly injured. The total number of injury road traffic collisions increased by 38 (+0.6%) compared with the previous year and the total number of persons injured increased by 204 (+2.2%).
There were 8 fewer persons killed or seriously injured on the roads (KSI casualties) in 2009 / 10 with 5 fewer deaths and 3 fewer persons seriously injured compared with the previous year.
While the overall level of injury collisions and resultant casualties have remained relatively static over the last few years, the numbers resulting in death or serious injury have decreased each year whereas those resulting in slight injuries have increased.
Compared with the start of the last decade, there were 62 (-38.0%) fewer fatalities and 806 (-44.8%) fewer serious injury casualties in 2009 / 10 than in 2000/01

Reported injury road traffic collision statistics for the 2009 calendar year are also contained within the appendix of the financial year report. A more detailed 2009 calendar year report will be published later this year.

View 2009 / 10 PSNI annual statistics

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