Isles crime detection rate among highest in UK

Shetland’s crime detection rate is among the highest in the country, new figures have revealed.

Northern Constabulary’s north division, which includes the far north mainland as well as the Northern Isles, has increased detections by 5.28 per cent to 68.68 per cent since April last year.

That compares with a 5.97 per cent increase to 67.6 per cent in the force’s east division of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.

There was also a 0.93 per cent increase to over 64 per cent in the force’s central division, which stretches from Ross and Cromarty to the Western Isles.

The detection rate for the first 11 months of this financial year is the highest ever achieved by Northern Constabulary, and one of the highest in the UK.

The overall clear-up rate of 67.3 per cent was recently revealed to members of the Northern Joint Police Board. But there is a chance the figure could rise again by the year’s end.

Statistics running from the beginning of April 2011 to the end of February this year show there were 974 fewer reported crimes in the Northern Constabulary area. Reported crime went down from 12,596 in 2010/2011 to 12,523 in 2011/12 – equating to 73 fewer victims of crime over the past year.

Perhaps more pertinent to folk in Shetland, worried by the growing drugs trend in the isles, is the claimed 100 per cent detection rate for drug possession and supply.