Drop in crime during lockdown ‘no great surprise'

26 August 2020

The announcement of a 32 per cent drop in recorded crime during lockdown is no great surprise, says the chair of West Midlands Police Federation.

But Jon Nott says people should not expect this to last once people start to return to a more normal life.

“The new figures are no great surprise. It is hardly a shock to find that crime has dropped at a time when businesses and retail premises were closed and people were largely confined to their own homes for a long period of time,” says Jon.

“The opportunity for some crimes – such as shoplifting – will have almost vanished overnight once the Prime Minister announced the lockdown at the outset of the pandemic.

“While, of course, any drop in crime is something to be welcomed, I think everyone will appreciate that as we come out of lockdown, businesses and shops open up again and people return to the lives they had before, we will see an increase in crime.”

But, despite the overall reduction in crime, Jon said he was concerned that assaults on police officers remained at the same levels despite there being fewer people on the streets due to the lockdown.

In the West Midlands, there were 267 officer assaults in April this year and 279 in May - compared to 234 in April and 279 in May 2019.

“This shows that despite the lockdown and reduced numbers of offences people were still making more of a concerted effort to assault officers who were doing their best to keep the public safe,” said Jon.  “These also included offences where officers were threatened with COVID by offenders and then having the worry of whether they were taking that back home to their families.”

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics revealed there had been a 32 per cent reduction in total crime, excluding fraud and computer misuse, during April and May 2020 - compared with a two-month average in the pre-lockdown period.

Key findings were:

• Underlying the reduction in crime were significant falls in theft offences, particularly domestic burglary and other theft of personal property
• Police recorded crime levels during the lockdown period were much lower than respective months in 2019, with 25 per cent less crime in April 2020 and 20 per cent less crime in May 2020
• Reductions were seen across many types of crime, in particular, theft offences fell in April and May 2020 to almost half the level recorded in April and May 2019
• One exception related to trends in drug offences, where levels rose by 22 per cent in April 2020 and 44 per cent in May 2020 compared with April and May 2019. This reflects proactive police activity in pursuing these crimes during lockdown
• Police recorded crime fell by 5 per cent in March 2020 compared with the previous month, followed by a larger 20 per cent decrease between March and April. In contrast, crime increased by 12 per cent from April to May, as the easing of lockdown restrictions began.

Reacting to the news, the Federation’s national vice-chair, Ché Donald, said: “We must not be lulled into a false sense of security, as the figures will inevitably rise again. The answer to this is that we still need more officers on the streets in order to drive crime down in the longer term and to keep the public safe. The much-promised Government uplift of police officers will assist with this, but it is yet to be felt by my colleagues and the public.”

He said he was highly encouraged by the finding that 91 per cent of adults who responded to the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) were satisfied with their local police officers and added: “We have all read the recent negative media perceptions of policing so this overwhelming vote of confidence from the public will be appreciated by our members. This reflects the amazing work done by policing during the pandemic and the respect in which they are clearly held by the majority of the public.”