Burglaries drop but criminal activity persists relating to motor vehicles

Police in Chiswick are to double up with colleagues in Ealing to to tackle crimes including theft of motor vehicles as the W4 area area continues to be a borough 'hotspot'.

Local teams are being allocated extra officers and the pro-active operation will extend to the Southfields ward in a bid to stop cars being stolen and theft from motor vehicles.

Over a quarter of vehicles are stolen without the owners' keys. Ford Transit and Mercedes Sprinter vans, Ford Fiestas, and some BMW and Land Rover models accounted for 70% of all vehicles stolen without their keys in 2014 in the Chiswick area.

A spolice pokesman said "This has been our volume crime for a long period and, in unison with Ealing, we want to make the area hostile to offenders by doing some pro-active operations, some visible patrols in key locations and targeting known offenders."

The latest crime statistics for the borough of Hounslow for the past year show reductions in burglaries and robberies but a rise in violent assaults and reports of sexual offences.

The latest figures issued by the Mayor's office (May 2014-April 2015) show an increase in motor vehicle theft in the Hounslow Borough from 1781 to 1888 cases.

The W4 area has a high percentage of luxury vehicles, including BMWs and Range Rovers stolen to order by gangs (often from behind locked gates). Another recurring problem is that of theft from vehicles, despite a long-running police education programme in Chiswick reminding residents not to leave valuable items in their cars and to warn visitors of the dangers.

Crime figures for the borough of Hounslow released by the Mayor's office( MOPAC) reveal a drop of nearly 20% in residential burglaries, from 2248 to 1808 in the recorded period (May 2014-April 2015). There's also been a 7.7% reduction in robberies in the borough. There were 406 robberies in the past year (May 2014-April 2015) compared to 440 the previous year.

A police spokesman said the crime reduction for Chiswick has been "really good" and they have seen a steady decrease in burglaries over the past three years. The Turnham Green ward saw a spate of shed and outhouse burglaries last summer which local officers are going to keep a close eye on as summer develops.

Hounslow Conservative Leader and Chiswick councillor Peter Thompson said,“We welcome this latest drop in figures and congratulate the Police on their hard work in Hounslow and their selfless devotion to local residents. Any crime is bad and with a Conservative Government the message will always be crime doesn’t pay!”

Elsewhere figures for the borough also show overall confidence in Police at 68%, slightly above the MPS average at 67% and overall satisfaction scoring 81%, slightly above the MPS average of 80%.

However there were were increases in other areas. Figures for incidence of violence against the person showed a 21% increase, while assault with injury recorded a 13.8% increase (1316-1498 cases). Reports of rape in the borough showed a 21% rise while Sexual Offences saw a big rise of 58% from 219-346.

Knife crime with injury is up by 29% and cases of Domestic Abuse by 9%. Racist and Religious Hate crime also increased by 12% from 336-378 cases.

However the borough did record a 16% drop in Homophobic crime, and there were no instances of Disability Hate or Transgender hate crime recorded.

June 8, 2015