Theft and drug trafficking sees a decline in Stockton, according to crime report

Theft and drug trafficking offences on Teesside has seen a decrease, according to a crime report.

A report recently compiled for the Safer Stockton Partnership found overall crime in the borough has fallen by more than 5%, although some categories such as robberies and vehicle crime are going up.

There were 1,231 fewer crimes in the 12 month period between February 2023 and the same month this year.

In total there were 23,035 crimes mentioned - 19,407 were offences reported by the public. 3,628 offences were said to have resulted from actions taken by police, for example in seizing drugs and offensive weapons.

The largest reduction was in theft against a person, with these crimes falling by 41.6%, followed by drug trafficking, down 26.2%, and rape offences, down by 25.5%.

The report also said that in the 12 months from March last year, the council’s civic enforcement team dealt with 4,680 requests for assistance with anti-social behaviour issues, going down by 3.1% on the previous period.

However, several categories of crime saw an increase.

Death or injury due to a driving offence went up by 120%; robberies rose by 50.3%; homicide, up 33.3%; vehicle crime saw a 23.8% increase; house burglary up by 18.5%; and drug possession, up by 3.9%.

Theft, which is not against a person also increased by 3.6%,

Chief Inspector Dan Heron, from Stockton’s Neighbourhood Policing Team, told councillors at a meeting in January that police were “absolutely on it” in terms of efforts to cut crime in the borough.

He said: “We’ve been doing a lot of proactive work around crime within Stockton.

“We have seen a bit of a spike in vehicle crime.

“There’s an element in Stockton at the moment going around breaking into cars.

“We’re absolutely on that.

“We know who’s doing it and we’ll be on with that.”

The Safer Stockton Partnership is a statutory crime and disorder reduction body consisting of representatives from the council, the police and other voluntary organisations.

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