Criminal Damage

WHAT IS CRIMINAL DAMAGE? Criminal damage refers to crimes where any person without lawful excuse intentionally or recklessly destroys or damages any property belonging to another. Activities resulting in non permanent damage (i.e. that can be rectified, cleaned off or removed at no cost) such as letting down of car tyres are not classed as criminal damage, nor is accidental damage.

Any damage around a point of entry to a house or vehicle is normally treated as attempted burglary or attempted vehicle crime rather than criminal damage if, on the balance of probabilities, one of those crimes is the more likely offence.

WHY TACKLE CRIMINAL DAMAGE? Nationally, Criminal Damage makes up over a third of the crime that forms the comparator set of recorded crimes by which each police force and community safety partnership is judged.

In Vale Royal Criminal Damage was 38% of comparator crime in 2003/4 and in 2005/06 - 43%

Driving this offence down is, therefore, crucial to delivering the crime reduction targets that we have agreed with the Government Office. Data from the British Crime Survey and Home Office assessments of the costs of crime also suggest that nationally the problem costs around £2.1bn a year.

More importantly, whilst criminal damage may often appear to be a minor crime, it is a crime that the public are concerned about – consistently appearing in the 3 strands of anti-social behaviour causing most concern. The way we perceive our surroundings has a massive impact on both communities and individual behaviour.

A neglected physical environment is unsafe. It undermines pride in the local community that can lead to further degradation. It can also act as a catalyst to other forms of anti-social behaviour and crime.

There are also numerous examples of those involved in more serious crimes also being involved in, or starting out committing, crimes like criminal damage – tackling this type of crime may therefore provide a way of stopping more serious offending developing both in the short and longer term.

The Community Safety Partnership is committed to tackle Criminal Damage over this coming year.

THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM is given in the following table:

	2003/04	2004/05	2005/06
CRIMINAL DAMAGE (Totals)	2520	2758	2803
Damage to dwellings	664	650	713
Damage to other buildings	377	495	440
Damge to vehicles	849	995	1025
Other damage	459	460	496
Arson	171	158	129

Over 10% of criminal damage is committed on the Northwich Witton Ward, with another 10% on Winsford Wharton. On Winsford Dene there is 8% of all damage and and Castle with 7%. These wards account for nearly half of all Vale Royal's criminal damage offences.

A new Criminal Damage Project Team has now been formed comprising of representatives from the Cheshire Constabulary, Vale Royal Borough Council, County Council, Weaver Vale Housing Trust, and Cheshire Youth Offending Team. The County Council are providing a lead for the project team.

What’s being done

Posters and leaflets will be designed to raise awareness of the Partership’s approach to criminal damage
There will be a zero tolerance policy towards offenders.
Persistent offenders will be monitored and targeted and action will be taken against those who fail to take heed of warnings issued.
The housing trusts will review their policy over repairs to damage caused to their properties.
Crime Prevention Advisors will visit repeat victims of damage and offer advice.
Certain wards will be targeted for intensive patrolling

So Far…

Operations specifically designed to reduce this crime are now well underway in hotspot areas of Winsford, Northwich and Helsby. The plans include the use of undercover officers and high-visibility patrols by Community Action Teams, Special Constabulary officers and Area Support Group teams, who are specially trained to deal with disorder situations.
One-to-one work with known persistent criminal damage offenders and repeat victims also features highly.
Awareness of the campaign is improving daily as posters and leaflets start to appear on doormats and in public places. The leaflets are designed to encourage people to support the campaign by reporting details of criminal damage offenders to the police and incidents of fly tipping and graffiti to Vale Royal Borough Council.