Rochdale crime figures rose by almost 10% in 2016

Rochdale Police Station

18,729 crimes were recorded in the Rochdale borough between 1 January and 31 December 2016, a 9.4% increase from the previous year where 17,120 crimes were recorded.

Crime across Greater Manchester increased by 9.5% last year with 216,493 recorded crimes for the same time period, up on the 2015 figure of 197,702. Reported crime in Rochdale accounted for 8.7% of those reported across the whole of Greater Manchester in 2016.

In 2016, recorded 999 calls in Rochdale increased by 6.4% to 26,204 from 24,639. Less incidents were recorded by 101 calls: 37,530 recorded calls in 2015 decreased by almost eight percent in 2016 to 34,601.

The average attendance time for a grade one call (‘emergency’) increased in Rochdale to 10:55 (2016) from 8:43 (2015), longer than the 10:10 average for Greater Manchester in 2016.

Attendance for grade two calls (‘priority’) was lower than Manchester’s 3:15:23 attendance: Rochdale was 2:57:28 in 2016, around 27 minutes longer than the year before (2:30:56).

Grade 3 calls (‘scheduled response’) resulted in an average attendance of 4:12:24 in Rochdale and 4:08:55 in Manchester for 2016.

All reported cases of domestic abuse, child sexual exploitation (CSE) and missing persons had increased in both Rochdale and Greater Manchester from 2015. In Rochdale, these were 1,947 cases of domestic abuse (up from 1,784), 774 reported incidents of CSE (up from 644) and 1,020 missing persons (up from 708).

Cash seized in the borough was down from over £32,000 in 2015 to just £12,507 in 2016. Over £185,000 was seized in Greater Manchester for 2016 (£185,368.30), down from £705,467.97 the year before.

No money was confiscated in Rochdale in 2015, but £5,747 was confiscated last year, just 3% of the £193,035.44 in Greater Manchester.

In Rochdale, 3,948 people were arrested in 2015 (an average of 11.09 per day); 3,097 were arrested the following year (8.46 arrests per day). This was 8.4% of the total arrests in Greater Manchester for 2016: 37,108 people were arrested compared to 46,155 the year before.

The budget increased by 2.4% in 2016 to £21,428,847, itself just four percent of the total budget for Greater Manchester of just over £530 million pounds.

Rochdale’s 292 police officers account for 4.7% of the 6,175 officers who patrol the region. Both Rochdale and Greater Manchester decreased numbers of officers by 3.3% and 2.4%, respectively.

Police Community Support Officers, specials and volunteers decreased across Rochdale from 61 to 50, 69 to 63 and two to one, respectively. Police staff remained the same at 52, whilst this figure decreased from 3,710 to 3,608 in Manchester.

Of the 374 cadets in Greater Manchester for 2016, Rochdale has between 22 and 28.

Superintendent John-Paul Ruffle of GMP’s Rochdale Borough, said: “I understand that any increase in crime will cause some concern for the people of Rochdale however it’s important that we understand this may be directly correlated to the changes in recording crime.

“As we see Rochdale has contributed to 8.7% of the rise in crimes recorded in Greater Manchester, this figure has remained relatively static and includes crimes such as modern slavery, harassment and malicious communications, which historically, would not have been recorded.

“While we can’t discount that more crime is being committed, we have to be mindful that people are more confident in reporting crime, which is something we will continue to build on as well as the trust of our communities.

“There has been a reduction of 25% of front line officers in the Rochdale which has changed our approach to responding to crime, however, each report is assessed on the threat, harm and risk posed to those involved and the wider public and in most cases, incidents attended by officers have a number of complexities that require us to work closely with partners to effectively respond.

“We continue to work incredibly hard to maintain the high levels of service to the people of Rochdale, including combating serious and organised crime and protecting those most vulnerable.”