Manchester police crime figures fall and arrests rise

Home Office figures have revealed that Greater Manchester had 20,000 fewer crime victims than last year, but police made 1,400 more arrests.

Greater Manchester Police said it had reduced crime to its lowest level in 10 years, despite making budget cuts of £143m over four years.

Between April 2010 to March 2011 crime fell from 247,574 to 227,709 when compared with April 2009 to March 2010.

Burglary fell from 20,179 to 18,427 and robbery from 6,021 to 4,879.

The figures also showed that there were 7,480 fewer victims of vehicle crime, 10,378 fewer victims of serious acquisitive crime, 677 fewer victims of hate crime and 483 fewer victims of serious violent crime.

Frontline officers

Chief Constable Peter Fahy said: "Our aim is to not only catch criminals but also make it impossible for them to operate by using every tool available to us, and these figures show we are going in the right direction to achieve that.

"The perception in the media and among the public is that budget cuts would mean less frontline officers and more crime, but these figures show that is not the case."

GMP, which has been carrying out a series of Town Hall meetings to ask people how they would like to see policing carried out after budget cuts, said it was increasing the number of officers in neighbourhood teams.

Mr Fahy said: "By working in smarter ways we can not only save costs, but more importantly free up officers to get into the heart of communities and tackle criminals, which we know is what people want."

Councillor Paul Murphy, chairman of Greater Manchester Police Authority, said: "We cannot be complacent and although we are in uncertain, challenging times, we will not waver in this commitment."