1,500 serious crimes reported in Northampton town centre last year
POLICE were called to more than 1,500 serious, violent or racially aggravated attacks in Northampton town centre last year, new figures show.
The stats, released to the Chronicle & Echo under the Freedom of Information Act, show police in the town centre dealt with 656 incidents of actual bodily harm as well as a further 398 attacks which did not result in serious injuries.
Police officers were attacked 75 times during the last 12 months, while police attended 80 attacks of a racist or religiously aggravated nature during the same time.
The statistics show that over the past five years police recorded almost 8,000 violent attacks in the centre, including 334 cases of GBH and 3,334 cases of ABH.
The figures only show how many attacks police recorded and do not include unreported fights and scuffles that occur in many of the town’s pubs and clubs.
MP for Northampton South, Brian Binley, said violent crime was an “unacceptable price to pay” for the town’s night-time economy and called for a review into the number of pubs and clubs in town.
He said: “I think we need to review the situation because it is not just the police we are paying for, it is the extra strain it puts on health services and binge drinking in the long term.
“Maybe we have created a town centre for a specific section of our community when we ought to be thinking of it for a wider section of society.”
A police spokesman said violent crime remained a priority for Northamptonshire Police and was “something we take very seriously”.
They said: “We are implementing a number of initiatives to tackle violence in Northampton and in other town centres across the county, for example, Operation Nightsafe was set up to supply a highly visible policing response that supports our strategic aims around violence and alcohol harm. Our message is clear – we don’t want to spoil people’s fun, we just want people to stay safe. We will continue to work hard through Operation Nightsafe to reduce the risk of violent crime and provide a safer environment for everyone.”
Violent offences recorded in Northampton town centre in 2011: -
Murder or attempted murder 1
Threats to kill 38
Manslaughter 1
Wounding 45
Use of object to endanger life 1
Grievous bodily harm (GBH) without intent 38
Actual bodily harm (ABH) 656
Racially or religiously aggravated GBH without intent 1
Racially or religiously aggravated ABH 11
Harassment 35
Racially or religiously aggravated harassment 3
Causing public fear, alarm or distress 166
Racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress 44
Assault without injury on a police officer 75
Assault without injury 398
Racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury 21
Possession of firearm with intent 3
Possession of other weapons 20
Possession of a knife or articles with a blade or point 24
Total 1,581
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Sunday 26 February 2012
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Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Pete Brown
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 07:38 AMThere will be thousands more not reported.
Del_a_Pre
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 12:35 AMSo Mr Binleys' answer is to review the number of pubs and clubs in the town centre, I assume with the intention of limiting or possibly reducing this number. A very clever idea to force the number of people out at busy times in to less space. And with a dying town centre to help kill off business is another good idea..
findy
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 09:13 AMI note the comment from 'lady muck' about this being 3 attacks on average a day. However the real question is how many of these actually resulted in investigations and attempts on arrest? A large number of these incidents in the break down are assaults without inj and public order offences which are very unlikely to result in any charges being brought to any persons. I think these figures are actually quite good with the amount of 'serious crime' being relatively low. Overall I agree that the petty incidents are a waste of police time.
lady muck
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 08:10 AMThat's about 3 attacks plus the unreported ones, EVERY DAY. That's the reason so many of us oldies keep away from the town centre and why it has developed into such a dung-heap.
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