The latest Office of National Statistic (ONS) figures for police recorded crime have been released today and shows a decrease in drugs offences in South Yorkshire, but increases in other crime types, mostly in line with increases nationally.

Today’s release covers the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the previous 12 months to September 2021.

Total recorded crime (excluding fraud) in South Yorkshire increased by 14%. This compares to a slightly larger increase of 15% across Yorkshire and Humber but a slightly smaller increase of 13% in England and Wales overall.

Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner said: “As with all crime figures, we need to interpret them with care. This is especially true for these figures where we are comparing a post-pandemic year with a year that was still being affected by Covid-19.

“However, the statistics will be useful in drawing attention to areas where progress is being made in bearing down on crime and areas where more work may need to be done.

“The overall level of recorded crime for South Yorkshire in the twelve months ending in September 22 increased by 14%.

“This was to be expected because the year with which it was being compared was affected by Covid-19 and some of the restrictions, which led to a significant drop in crime. In other words, crime seems to be returning to its pre-pandemic levels.

“Even so, the increase in overall recorded crime in South Yorkshire is slightly less than Yorkshire as a whole.

“Although residential burglary levels have risen by 17%, numbers of burglaries are still below pre-pandemic levels.

“Possession of weapons rose by 8% in South Yorkshire but in England and Wales as a whole it rose by19%. Even so, firearms offences were much greater at 19% than in the whole of England and Wales.

“Figures relating to knife crime need to be treated with particular care since a new methodology for counting these crimes is now being used, but only by 37 of 43 police forces. South Yorkshire is using the new methodology and so it is not possible to do year on year comparisons with other forces easily.

“Also, we are comparing figures for knife crime with a year when knife incidents were drastically reduced because of Covid and the restrictions.

“Using the available data and the same methodologies, we can say that knife crime has risen by 0.8% since the last pre-pandemic comparator year (year ending March 2020 compared to year end September 2022)

“Sexual offences have risen by 11% in South Yorkshire, but this is far fewer than in England and Wales altogether, which is 17%.

“Stalking and harassment has risen by 5% – the same as the country as a whole.

“Drug offences have decreased by 18% and while that seems welcome, we do need to recognise that it might in part at least reflect less pro-active work by the police who are having to manage increases in demand elsewhere.”

Below are the crime types according to whether they increased or decreased in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the previous 12 months to September 2021.

Decrease:

• Drug offences (-18%)

Increase:

• Robbery (25%)
• Knife Crime (24%)
• Sexual Offences (11%)
• Violence against the person (15%)
• Theft (21%)
• Total recorded crime (excl. fraud) (14%)
• Criminal Damage and Arson (14%)
• Public Order Offences (10%)
• Residential burglary (17%)
• Possession of Weapons (8%)
• Crimes against society (4%)

The ONS report for England and Wales can be viewed here.