2.3% Rise In Overall Crime

There has been a 2.3% rise in overall crime, according to the PSNI's annual crime statistics.

Crime across Northern Ireland have risen from 102,746 in 2013/14 to 105,072 in 2014/15, which represents 57 crimes per 1,000 population, compared with a level of 84 crimes per 1,000 population when crime was at its highest level in 2002/03.

However, the level of crime recorded in 2014/15 is the fifth lowest annual crime level recorded in Northern Ireland since new Home Office counting rules were introduced in 1998/99.

The number of drug seizure incidents in Northern Ireland increased by 5.8% from 4,825 in 2013/14 to 5,104 in 2014/15, with cannabis seized in 3,925 incidents. However, over three times as much cocaine powder was recovered in 2014/15 (80.9kg), than in 2013/14 (25.2kg).

In 2014/15, 2,831 persons were arrested for drug offences.

Compared with the previous year, there were increases in hate crime across all but one of the six hate incident types recorded in 2014/15 – racist incidents increased by 374 from 982 to 1,356 and racist crimes increased by 230 from 691 to 921.

During 2014/15 there were 94 victims as a result of paramilitary-style attacks. This is 24 more than the previous year but 58 fewer than the number that occurred 10 years ago in 2005/06 (152 victims). Fifty-eight of the 94 victims were the victim of paramilitary-style assaults while the remaining 36 were the victims of paramilitary-style shootings.

Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris said: "We have seen a slight increase of 2.3% in recorded crime for 2014/15, which, unfortunately, is similar to the wider trend that is being experienced right across the UK.

"Like all public sector organisations we are operating in an environment of reducing budgets and reducing numbers of people to deliver against the same volume of calls for service.

"Over the past 12 years, while reported crime has fallen by 26 per cent, calls for service have remained constant at 500,000."

(CD/JP)