Crime & Community Safety
Issues of concern
People's perceptions of how safe they feel on the streets can be affected by low level crime against the physical fabric of the city, such as graffiti. There are relatively high crime rates in particular areas in the city, including deprived areas at the edge of the city centre
What has happened over the last three years
The proportion of people living in the xx area who felt safe increased from xx% in 2002 to xx% in 2008. Neighbourhood Renewal areas have established boards that enable residents to decide how to deploy resources to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour effectively
Current position
The Business Forum Graffiti Strategy Group distributes useful information on combating graffiti for businesses.
We have been allocated neighbourhood funding through the Safer & Stronger Communities Fund to tackle quality of life issues in some of our most deprived areas.
It is acknowledged there have been problems with the level of violent crime across the city for several years. As the graph below shows, violent crime rates have remained significantly higher over the last 5 years than the county, the region and the England average and, although there is a relatively significant decline in this rate in 2008, this is matched by similar declines regionally and nationally. So the gap remains significant and is something we intend to address.
Levels of violent crime 2002-08 Source: Home Office Statistics 2008.
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What we plan to do
Improve the street environment using methods such as wardens, community co-ordinators and Police Community Support Officers.
Tackle graffiti with new equipment, preventive work, prosecution of taggers and media coverage of graffiti removal. Where necessary, enforce removal of graffiti from private buildings.
Use a "neighbourhood management" approach (i.e. one which allows local residents to make decisions about their neighbourhoods), particularly in the xx area, to ensure community safety work is linked to other community initiatives and makes the local area safer.