Police plan results

MONDAY MAY 22. HERTFORDSHIRE Police have made arresting progress last year after hitting most of their Policing Plan targets.

Hertfordshire Police Authority heard on Friday that burglaries and car crime had fallen and that police had exceeded its target for answering 999 calls within the target time, despite an 11 per cent increase in the number of calls.

Chief Constable Paul Acres said: 'Despite huge increases in the demand on our services we have made some real improvements in key areas and have continued to reduce the crimes which people are most concerned about.'

During the year, the number of homes broken into fell to less than ten per day and burglaries are 21 per cent lower than figures from three years ago.

There were 644 fewer vehicles stolen and 177 fewer vehicles broken into, compared with figures three years before.

But there was a seven per cent increase in recorded crime, with criminal damage to vehicles seeing the biggets rise.

The Constabulary also hopes to reduce the number of burglaries to commercial properties which increased by 23 per cent as well as violent crime which increased by 15 per cent and robberies which soared by almost 60 per cent.