CRIME went up by almost 11 per cent over the course of 2021, new police figures show.

Thames Valley Police data for January through to December showed 17,516 crimes were recorded in Reading -- 1,727 (10.9 per cent) more than over the same period last year.

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The figures also show:

  • Violent crimes went up by 17.4 per cent, a rise from 5,500 crimes to 6,456.
  • Sexual offences jumped up from 572 crimes to 646 -- a rise of 12.9 per cent
  • Robberies (of both residences and businesses) fell 36.3 per cent to 144 crimes
  • Likewise, burglaries (of homes, sheds, community buildings etc) also fell from 872 crimes to 692 -- a drop of 20.6 per cent.
  • Vehicle crime also fell from 1,449 crimes to 1,104, representing a drop of 23.8 per cent from the previous year
  • Drug offences saw a rise of 6.7 per cent and weapon possession offences dropped 17.3 per cent

The biggest movement comparing 2020 to 2021 came in the form of homicide.

A rise from three offences to eight homicide represented a 166.7 per cent increase.

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However, the number of offences in this category is relatively small.

The next highest rise with more than 100 offences recorded was that of public order offences.

Reading borough saw a rise of 103 per cent in this category -- 2,419 public order offences were recorded in 2021 compared to 2020.

The largest fall in any category came in the form of robbery of business properties, which fell 50 per cent.

However, the drop is larger because fewer crimes of this kind were recorded. In 2020, 10 were recorded, whereas in 2021, five were recorded.

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The next largest drop (in a category with more than 100 recorded offences) came in the form of vehicle interference crimes.

162 crimes of this kind were recorded from January to December 2021, whereas in the same period in the previous year 254 of these offences were recorded.

The figures come from a crime summary for January to December 2021 published on the Thames Valley Police website on January 24.