MOST recorded crime in Teignmouth last month (jan) showed an encouraging downward trend, police have revealed.
The resort’s Neighbourhood Team Leader revealed that lawlessness had dropped by more than a quarter compared with the same time last year.
Sgt Jonathan Ross said the tally had dropped from 104 to 76, a decrease of 27 per cent.
Matters of violence with injury fell by almost a half with just nine incidents logged last month against 17 in 2019.
The number of crimes involving violence with injury also dipped, falling from 26 to 22.
Other notable drops included criminal damage where vandalism plummeted by nearly 37 per cent from 19 to 12 and shoplifting by 43 per cent, although the tally was slight to start with – seven to four.
But there were some jumps as well with robberies climbing from zero to two. In the first instance a suspect had been identified by police and was currently on remand awaiting court.
The other robbery saw an arrest, but there was insufficient evidence to pursue a prosecution, said Sgt Ross.
No drugs possession offences had been crimed with Sgt Ross announcing that good work from ‘numerous police teams’ had been a positive factor.
Generally, the local drugs scene had been stifled by the teams, resulting in major suppliers being arrested, charged and then remanded. The court outcome was expected imminently.
Sgt Ross said: ‘I reiterate my usual refrain - if crimes go unrecorded, they will not feature in the figures and not be considered by the Senior Management Team and Police Crime Commissioner when allocating new police recruits.’