North Yorkshire is the safest place in England, the county’s acting chief constable has said after new crime figures were released.
Elliot Foskett made the claim after three-year crime trend figures showed North Yorkshire has a lower crime rate than the England and Wales average in all but one of 15 categories. Bicycle theft was the exception.
The figures were revealed during an online public meeting yesterday (March 25) held by North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe.
Temporary assistant chief constable Catherine Clarke said the figures, for the period from March 2021 and Feb 2024 showed all areas of crime were lower than in recent years with the exception of the period during covid.
Acting chief constable Foskett then said:
“This for me is the big one. This makes North Yorkshire the safest place in England.”
He said crime levels usually rose during summer but the trend last year from May to August was “significantly flat”, adding:
“What this means at the end of the day is fewer victims of crime. I don’t want to underplay this because I think it is such a huge thing for this county.
“Everytime I go out speaking to people in the street or in the community, sometimes they don’t realise just how safe it is here.”
A slide from the meeting showing crime levels.
Temporary ACC Clarke’s presentation also said the response rate for answering 999 calls was “vastly improved”.
The national target for police forces is to answer 90% of calls within 10 seconds. In February this year the figure in North Yorkshire was 89%, she said.
The response time for answering non-emergency 101 calls has also improved but remains below the target of 90% of calls being answered in 120 seconds.
North Yorkshire Police is currently achieving 75%, with the longest wait for a 101 call being one hour 23 minutes.
Yesterday’s public meeting was the first since the publication of a report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services recognising significant improvements in North Yorkshire Police after a highly critical previous inspection in October 2022.
It was also the last police public meeting chaired by Ms Metcalfe before her role is taken over by whoever is elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire on May 2.
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