Northampton sees dramatic increase in drug crime in latest stats

There were 620 drug related offences - including trafficking and dealing substances such as heroin and cocaine, as well as possession crimes - between July 2017 and June 2018.

That figure is up by 17% on the previous year, when 530 incidents were recorded.

The statistics are based on crimes reported to the police, and the ONS urges caution in interpreting some of these figures.

Some offences go unreported while others may be more numerous due to a change in the focus of the police or greater public attention.

Joe Traynor, from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice, said: “Over recent decades, we’ve seen continued falls in overall levels of crime but in the last year the trend has been more stable.

“We saw rises in some types of theft and in some lower-volume but higher-harm types of violence.”

Overall, police recorded crime in Northampton slightly increased between July 2017 and June 2018.

Over the 12 month period, 22,874 crimes were recorded, up by 1% on 2016-17.

That means there is a crime for at least one in every 10 residents in Northampton, well above average for England and Wales.

Gun and knife possession offences in Northampton rose by 20 to 251 incidents.

There have been four homicides, which are murders or manslaughters. There was one case of death or injury by dangerous driving.

In Northampton, theft, one of the most high volume crimes, decreased by 5%.

Violence with injury, which includes assault, GBH and wounding, has dropped, however it is tough to judge as police recording in this area has improved over the last couple of years.

Similarly sexual crime statistics are hard to judge as many more victims are now coming forward due to a series of high profile cases.

In Northampton there were 872 incidents recorded between July 2017 and June 2018, a 16% rise on the previous year, when 753 crimes were reported.

There were also 755 cases of stalking and harassment reported over the same period.