Recorded Crime Q1 2024

The number of recorded crime incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences increased by 18% or 390 to 2,572 in the year to Q1 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. This was driven mostly by a rise in incidents of Blackmail or Extortion and Robbery from the Person offences.

Recorded incidents of Weapons & Explosives offences were up by 10% or 253 to 2,844 incidents over the same period. Incidents of Theft & Related offences were up by 9% or 6,415 to 75,825. More than two in five (44%) incidents of Theft & Related offences involved Theft from Shops.

Recorded Crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences were also up over the period, rising by 9% or 933 to 11,479 incidents. There were also increases in incidents relating to Burglary & Related offences (+6%) and Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+1%) while those relating to Damage to Property & to the Environment remained unchanged.

By contrast, there were falls in incidents involving Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-16%), Sexual offences (-12%), Homicide & Related offences (-8%), and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-6%). Additionally, incidents involving Public Order & Other Social Code offences and Controlled Drug offences were down by 5% and 4% respectively. See Figure 2.1 and Tables 2.1 & 4.1.

Kidnapping and Fraud offences up but Homicide and Sexual offences fall in Q1 2024 compared with Q1 2023

Table 2.2 compares the number of crime incidents by offence category between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024. For a number of crime categories, the scale and direction of the change between both quarters was similar to the year on year changes in Table 2.1 above but there were some exceptions.

Among those offence types with quite similar changes between quarters and over the year were:

• Sexual offences - down 13% between quarters compared to a fall of 12% over the year.
• Homicides & Related offences - down 7% between quarters and down 8% over the year.
• Theft & Related offences - up 11% between quarters compared to 9% over the year.

However, there were differences among incidents involving other offence types, for example:

• Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were down 6% between quarters compared to an increase of 18% over the year.
• Fraud, Deception & Related offences increased by 2% between quarters but by 9% over the year.
• Controlled Drug offences were down by 10% between quarters and by 4% over the year.
• Incidents involving Offences Against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime fell by 24% between quarters and by 16% over the year. See Figure 2.2 and Tables 2.1 & 2.2.

Burglary, Fraud and Offences against Government crime levels remain quite different to pre COVID-19 levels

Table 2.3 provides further breakdown by offence type of the total number of recorded crime incidents for the year to Q1 2024 compared with earlier years. Data for 2020 and 2021 are likely to have been impacted by public health restrictions in place at the time due to COVID-19.

The number of recorded incidents of Burglary & Related offences fell from 16,410 in 2020 to 8,927 in 2021 which coincided with Public Health Restrictions being in place at the time. As restrictions were lifted in 2022, the number of incidents rose to 9,257 and remained at nearly the same at 9,251 in 2023 before rising to 9,806 incidents in 2024. This was 40% fewer incidents of Burglary & Related offences than the total recorded in 2020.

The number of incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences in 2024 at 11,479 was 43% more than the 8,025 incidents recorded in 2020. The number of incidents for this category more than doubled to 17,566 between 2020 and 2022 before falling back to 10,546 in 2023.

For the other offence categories, the largest rates of change in the number of recorded crime incidents between 2020 and 2024 were in Controlled Drug offences (-23%) and Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-20%). The number of incidents involving Controlled Drug offences increased from 22,005 to 23,968 between 2020 and 2021 before falling to 17,781 in 2022. There was not much change in 2023 at 17,614 but these type of incidents fell to 16,874 in 2024. In the latter category which comprised mainly of Offences While in Custody and Breach of Court Orders, there was a fall from 17,410 to 9,707 between 2020 and 2021. The number of incidents rose to 13,114 in 2022 and 16,592 in 2023 before falling back to 13,982 in 2024. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.