Coronavirus lockdown: South Yorkshire crime falls

Nationally, crime has fallen by 28% over the past three months, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council

Crime has fallen by almost a fifth in South Yorkshire during the coronavirus lockdown, a senior police officer has said.

Assistant Chief Constable Tim Forber said violent crime had dropped mainly due to pubs and clubs being closed.

The number of burglaries had also fallen due to people staying in due to restrictions put in place since March.

Ass Ch Con Forber said the force had seen an increase in fraudulent activity and shopping scams.

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The Local Democracy Reporting Service said there had been a surge in people trying to scam older people by taking advanced payments for shopping which never arrived.

Speaking at the Police and Crime Commissioner meeting, he said there had been a 19% crime drop in the past 12 weeks.

He added South Yorkshire Police officers were working continuously to spot new trends emerging. 

"Without the night time economy, violence and incidents of a similar nature are significantly down to pretty much zero," Ass Ch Con Forber said.  

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"Offences like residential burglary are down really significantly due to people being indoors a lot more."

He added: "We have seen a shift in crime particularly around fraud increasing and we're alive to that - we've got our fraud prevention officer who is always looking for opportunities to provide crime prevention advice to vulnerable victims. 

"We have a really robust fraud triage service that identifies trends and helps us target victims and criminals that we see emerging."

The comments follow a spate of shootings last weekend. The force blamed these on two feuding groups and said patrols had been stepped up in the affected areas.

Nationally, figures published by the National Police Chiefs' Council revealed there had been a substantial rise in anti-social behaviour in the past three months, but an overall fall in crime of 28% - with rape and burglary allegations down 37%.