YORK'S latest crime figures show it is well on the way to being one of Britain's safest cities, according to the city's police chief.

Announcing the totals for the period from April to October at a meeting of the city's community and police groups, Superintendent Jim Kilmartin said crime rates were falling and detection rates were up compared with the same time last year.

"People often believe crime is going up all the time," he said.

"But in York we are showing that is not so - we have 2,000 fewer crimes being committed annually than we did ten years ago. And the overall crime detection from April to October this year was 26 per cent compared with 19 per cent for the same time last year.

"I believe the most serious crime we deal with is that involving violence and in the city centre area we have seen assaults drop by 34 per cent and we have doubled the number of violent crimes we have detected this year compared to last."

Domestic burglary has also been reduced and Supt Kilmartin praised Neighbourhood Watch Schemes and crime prevention schemes, saying they had played an important part in improving home security.

"The burglary of homes has been reduced by 12 per cent, in comparison with the same time last year, and the detection rate is up by nine per cent," said Supt Kilmartin.

"The domestic burglary figures include attempted break-ins, which is somewhere we have had quite an impact through target hardening.

"In a quarter of those break-ins recorded the burglar wasn't able to get into the house."

But Supt Kilmartin said York Police were not content to rest on their laurels and he still felt there were many areas where the crime figures were still unacceptable.

He said bicycle theft, where figures had remained static, was one of the most puzzling areas of crime in the city.

"We have increased the detection rate by 67 per cent," said Supt Kilmartin.

"But the number of thefts remains the same - and all those bikes must be going somewhere.

"And so what we will be trying to do in this division is to make it a place where the trafficking in stolen goods is unacceptable."

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