Increases in fraud and computer misuse demonstrate the need for policing to adapt and transform

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Crime and Incident Recording Chief Constable Jeff Farrar said:

“The addition of fraud and computer misuse incidents has led to the inclusion of a further 5.6 million offences in this bulletin. These latest figures show that there were 1.9 million cases of fraud on UK-issued cards, which is an increase of 39 per cent on the previous year. The vast majority of these are not reported to the police, who have only seen a 3 per cent increase in fraud offences.

“The ability to commit crime online demonstrates the need for policing to adapt and transform to tackle these cyber challenges.  Working with the Home Office, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and industry colleagues, Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh is leading on the digital policing programme to develop new tactics and capabilities to catch these offenders and help protect people online.

“Police recorded 4.7 million offences in the year ending September 2016, an annual rise of 8 per cent.  Increases in public order, sexual offences, and violence without injury have been major contributing factors in this. The Office of National Statistics attributes this to improved crime recording and a greater confidence in people coming forward to report.

“There appear to be smaller increases in some of the lower volume but higher harm categories of police recorded violence including homicide, up by 22 per cent, much of which is due to the inclusion of the 96 victims from the tragic events at Hillsborough. Knife crime has increased by 11 per cent in line with the recent upward trend. The service is determined to address this rise and will continue with proactive operations across the county to target habitual carriers of knives and those shops who are willing to sell to those who are underage.”

The full ONS report is available here