Sustainable Community Strategy

Strategic Priority 5: Safer Nottingham

Reduce crime, the fear of crime, substance misuse and anti-social behaviour

2020 objectives

Transform Nottingham’s neighbourhood.

• A significantly safer city with lower crime, fear of crime and perceptions of lower anti-social behaviour.           
• More effective at tackling substance misuse and drug dealing in local communities.
• More effective at tackling the causes of crime and intervening earlier in the lives of those at risk.

2020 Headline Targets

• Reduce ‘all crime’ to the average for Nottingham’s family of similar Community Safety Partnerships and the Core Cities.
• Reduce core ASB calls to the Police by 39% (over a 2006/07 baseline) by March 2014.
• Increase the number of people successfully completing treatment from 14.28% (2010/11 baseline) to 20.5% by March 2014.
• Place holder for target to reduce adult re-offending.

The Story: From Today to Tomorrow

In the last five years overall crime has fallen by a third in Nottingham and the fear of crime has also declined.  Nonetheless, crime is still too high.  Nottingham still has the highest crime rate of all the Core Cities and it is still seen as a key issue by many Nottingham residents.

Some 52% of offenders are under 25 years old.  Too many of our young people are involved in crime or anti-social behaviour and some of the city’s ethnic groups are disproportionately represented.  There is also a strong link between crime and drugs activity.  We estimate that there are 4,000 problem drug users in the city, half of them under 34 years old.  There is also a strong link between crime and deprivation.  Criminality is also deeply ingrained in some small sections of the community.

We are determined to continue our work to reduce crime further, even though the recession may make this difficult in the short term.  We have put in place a five point framework, as set out below, to tackle crime in both the public and private spheres, responding to the evidence and what people are saying to us.  We also recognise the important of tackling the causes of crime and will work closely with other partners to achieve this long term aim.