Caution over crime figures

The national figure appears to be somewhat different, showing that violent crime is up. But these figures should come with a warning: handle with extreme caution.

The numbers look harmless enough, but in the wrong hands they can explode all over the media, rocking public confidence and damaging police morale.

Unfortunately, these statistics are always seized by the wrong hands, belonging, as they do, to politicians. Detailed crime figures from every police force in the country ought to be enlightening. After the Government and the Opposition have put them through the spin cycle, they are anything but.

The frenzy surrounding the publication of today's data is unprecedented. Clearly crime is to be a bloody battleground in the imminent General Election.

Tory Party leader William Hague is intent on making the most of the news that street muggings are on the increase.

Meanwhile Government ministers have been trying to soften the impact of this bad news. They have already suggested an epidemic of mobile phone theft is a key reason for the increase in violent crime. And Home Secretary Jack Straw has announced that police recruitment has risen by 74 per cent in the past year, another figure the Opposition is likely to challenge.

To confuse matters further, police forces operate autonomously and record crimes differently. A sudden rise in, say, sexual assaults in one county may actually reflect the police's success in encouraging victims to come forward.

It would be helpful if police forces could standardise the way figures are collated across the country.

All these considerations leave the tax-paying members of the public hardly any the wiser. Ultimately, as we cannot believe the politicians' skewed interpretation of the statistics, we must rely on our own instincts. North Yorkshire still feels like a safe place to live, a view happily confirmed by today's figures.

Updated: 10:59 Tuesday, January 16, 2001