New crime statistics for the area present broadly positive picture with the number of offences down again. Unlike other parts of London violent crime is falling in Hounslow Borough and Chiswick in particular.

Ward by ward data has been released and it shows that violent crime is well below that seen in other parts of London and falling. In the Chiswick Riverside area and Southfield Ward (which covers Acton Green and Bedford Park) the number of these offences was particularly low.

Robbery (theft where violenceor threats are used) is also down sharply except in Southfield Ward.

The news was not all good though. Previous successes in tackling burglary in the area appear to have been reversed. Turnham Green ward suffered particularly badly with burglaries up 58% and the same ward suffered an astonishing leap in theft and handling offences. The police have yet to respond to our request for an official explanation of this but anecdotally this appears to relate to an dramatic upsurge in bike thefts in the High Road area. Police are encouraging people to use the new 'Immobilise' registration scheme to help combat this type of crime.

For the borough of Hounslow as a whole crime was down 5.2% against 1.9% for the Metropolitan Police district as a whole. Violent crime was down as well which compares well to the rest of London which saw such crimes increase as did Ealing. New reporting methods are believed to explain the apparent rise in crime and police spokespersons are adamant that the underlying trend is down.

In both Hounslow and Ealing rape appears to be on the increase but the police have claimed in the past that this is a result of their success in persuading more victims to proceed with prosecutions and should not be taken as an indication that the number of such crimes is on the increase. Hounslow was also successful in reducing the amount of gun-related crime which fell by 11% over the year and despite the rise in burglary in Chiswick this type of crime was down overall.

We have asked the police for detailed comment on these figures and will publish them here when available.

-	Chiswick Wards - 12 Months to September 2005
-	Offences per 1000 population
-	Turnham Green		Chiswick Homefield		Chiswick Riverside		Southfield		Hounslow	MPS
-	-	Change over previous year	-	Change over previous year		Change over previous year	-	Change over previous year	-	-
Burglary	22.6	58.0%	18.3	28.0%	16.3	14.0%	15.1	5.6%	14.1	14.3
Criminal Damage	15.3	-12.6%	17.6	0.6%	13.8	-21.1%	10.2	-41.7%	19.5	17.5
Drugs Offences	3	-36.2%	0.8	-83.0%	0.6	-87.2%	1.4	-70.2%	2.6	4.7
Fraud or Forgery	8.7	35.9%	2.4	-62.5%	0.6	-90.6%	2.3	-64.1%	7.7	6.4
Robbery	5	-7.4%	4.6	-14.8%	1.8	-66.7%	5.9	9.3%	3.6	5.4
Sexual Offences	1.3	0.0%	1	-23.1%	1.1	-15.4%	0.2	-84.6%	1.3	1.3
Theft and Handling	85.2	73.9%	67.1	36.9%	37	-24.5%	46.5	-5.1%	41	49
Violence Against the Person	21.6	-19.1%	20.8	-22.1%	11.3	-57.7%	11.7	-56.2%	29.2	26.7

 

Crime Stats 12 Months to September 2005
-	Hounslow		Ealing		Metropolitan Police area
-	Number of Offences	Change over year	Number of Offences	Change over year	Change over year
Total Crimes	27549	-5.2%	36541	-1.9%	-3.9%
Homicide	6	100.0%	10	42.9%	-4.0%
Violence Against the Person (Total)	6649	-5.4%	8137	8.7%	7.4%
Rape	83	33.9%	95	30.1%	8.0%
Other Sexual	235	5.4%	272	-10.8%	5.9%
Robbery (Total)	798	7.7%	1780	31.6%	9.6%
Robbery (Person)	738	5.3%	1666	29.3%	11.2%
Robbery (Business)	60	50.0%	114	75.4%	-11.3%
Burglary (Total)	3011	-1.6%	4855	12.3%	3.2%
Burglary Residential	1869	-0.5%	3073	5.1%	-1.2%
Burglary Non-Residential	1142	-3.5%	1782	27.2%	10.8%
Gun Enabled Crime	79	-11.2%	161	-2.4%	5.5%
Motor Vehicle Crime	4236	-7.6%	6242	-15.0%	-7.6%