There have been 271 fewer victims of robbery and 101 fewer victims of knife crime over the past 12 months.

Acting Borough Commander, Adrian Roberts, has given an exclusive interview to the Croydon Guardian regarding the latest crime figures.

The chief superintendent wanted to allay fears in the borough and show how Croydon cops are constantly working to reduce crime and make residents safer after figures showed a 7.4 per cent rise in crime.

“The annual crime figures highlight some areas in which we face challenges over the coming year, but also show that we are having a great deal of success in tackling serious crime and raising the public’s confidence in Croydon Police.

“Croydon town centre is the largest town centre outside of London, and brings with it a set of unique challenges for the borough. Operation Safe for All has brought about some big successes particularly in reducing street violence.

Knife related crime on the borough has reduced by 17 per cent (101 fewer victims) compared to 2007/08 figures, youth violence has decreased by 4.9 per cent (51 fewer victims), gun crime is down by 19.6 per cent (28 fewer victims) and robbery has decreased by 16.2 per cent (271 fewer victims).

“This shows that our coordinated partnership approach to tackling these issues across the borough is working. Stop and search tactics have helped us seize 186 offensive weapons since Safe for All began in October 2008.

Our Safer Neighbourhoods teams are also having good success in reducing and preventing antisocial behaviour across the borough, evident by the 27 per cent reduction in disturbances being reported to us during the first three months of 2009 compared to the same period last year.

“The rise in reported crimes such as domestic violence, rape, sexual offences and hate crime vindicates our strategy to make our services more accessible for vulnerable victims.

We are making it easier for victims to report these incidents to police with the confidence that we will deal compassionately and expeditiously with the investigations.

As a result of this increased reporting, we are making more arrests in these areas; for example, in the case of rape, we have solved more than double the number of crimes in the past six months than we did during the first six months of the year.

“Overall, I am proud of the effort and commitment of my officers and staff over the past year.

We have made great strides in tackling serious crime on the borough and the public seem to have more confidence in reporting crime to us.

We still face challenges in Croydon, and I am committed to confronting these head-on.

But I also want to acknowledge the relentless efforts of my staff and will be looking to build on the positives over the coming year.”

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