But violent crime is on the rise in the borough
New figures show that Putney is one of the safest parts of London to live in and getting safer. Most Putney wards have much less violent crime than the borough and London-wide average and whilst violent crime is on the increase elsewhere it is generally falling in Putney over the year to September 2005. The East Putney ward saw the level of violent crime against the person fall by 41.9%
The detailed ward by ward figures are shown in the table below.
Burglary is on the decline as well but the Thamesfield ward does seem to have a significant problem with theft. Anecdotally this appears to be down to a rise in the number of bike thefts.
A police spokesman said of the figures, "Bringing down robbery statistics has been a major target for Wandsworth police, and our ongoing operations on cracking down on street crime has resulted in fewer victims walking safer streets. There has been a big reduction in domestic burglary and we are working with the council to educate our elder residents in preventing distraction burglary. We are actively tackling bike crime and in light of recent attacks, stepping up our patrols on Clapham and Putney Commons.
On a borough-wide basis crime was down by 10.1% over the year. However violent crime does appear ot be on the increase. Gun crime also saw a sharp increase of 30.1% but this could partly be accounted for by Operation Shield which has targeted drug dealers and associated gun crime in recent months.
| Wandsworth Borough Crime Stats 12 Months to September 2005 | |||
| - | Wandsworth | Metropolitan Police area | |
| - | Number of Offences | Change over year | Change over year |
| Total Crimes | 30192 | -10.4% | -3.9% |
| Homicide | 3 | 0.0% | -4.0% |
| Violence Against the Person (Total) | 6222 | 16.8% | 7.4% |
| Rape | 50 | -42.5% | 8.0% |
| Other Sexual | 271 | 2.7% | 5.9% |
| Robbery (Total) | 1584 | -1.4% | 9.6% |
| Robbery (Person) | 1494 | 1.5% | 11.2% |
| Robbery (Business) | 90 | -33.3% | -11.3% |
| Burglary (Total) | 3187 | -13.1% | 3.2% |
| Burglary Residential | 2347 | -10.7% | -1.2% |
| Burglary Non-Residential | 840 | -19.2% | 10.8% |
| Gun Enabled Crime | 121 | 30.1% | 5.5% |
| Motor Vehicle Crime | 4043 | -16.2% | -7.6% |