Camden New Journal - News: Robberies on increase

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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 9 August 2007

Robberies on the increase despite police presence

ROBBERIES on Camden’s streets have risen sharply despite increases in the borough’s police force and renewed efforts after a poor police performance last year, latest figures show.
There were 184 incidents in the borough in June, part of a trend which has seen robberies rise 25 per cent on last year – when Camden missed central targets on beating robbery.
While Camden Town and Bloomsbury remain the hot spots for robbery, the risk of mugging has doubled in the last year in Haverstock, Gospel Oak, and Belsize, although numbers remain relatively low and small increases create sharp percentage swings.
The robbery rate has tripled in Highgate, the June figures show.
The borough’s new senior detective, Supt Jeremy Burton, has had six weeks to get to grips with the robbery problem faced by Camden’s residents, alongside the rise in burglary and car break-ins that buck national and Met trends.
He said Camden’s robbers were typically opportunity criminals who targeted revellers who were the worse for wear, or youths targeting other young people, and stressed that despite the increases in June, the robbery rate in Camden was low compared to other boroughs.
He said: “A robber will literally walk out of their house and think ‘Will I rob today or do something else?’ These are opportunity crimes. You can’t target single offences but you can target the offenders. Our detection rate – the number of offences we are solving – has increased, and is now 13 per cent against a Met target of 14 per cent. That’s been my drive: to deal with the people who are doing this.”
Camden has also seen a fall in pickpockets and snatches, though with 159 people reporting thefts from their person in June the borough remains the second worst afflicted in London.

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