Top officers questioned over violent crime figures

Chief police officers have been questioned about levels of violent crime in Slough by local councillors.

There was one homicide and 5,820 violent crimes "against the person" in the Berkshire town between October 2023 and September 2024, according to Thames Valley Police statistics.

In total there were 13,254 "victim-based crimes" recorded, covering a wide range of offences from sexual offences to stealing and criminal damage.

Labour councillor Fiza Matloob asked officers if they had a "specific plan" for Slough, which he said the figures showed was "one of, if not the most dangerous town" in the county.

Each year, top police officers deliver a report to local authorities on policing activities and are scrutinised by councillors.

Mr Matloob praised the "fantastic job" officers were doing, adding that there was "a lot of respect for you guys in Slough".

But he said that when residents experience violent crime "their attitude changes".

He said: "Slough comes out really bad in regards to violent crime, according to the crime rate, it’s one of if not the most dangerous town in Berkshire.

“Is there a specific plan to focus on this area, what’s the criteria for the allocation of resources?"

Steve Raffield, local command unit commander for Berkshire East, said the force tried to apply "an intelligent approach" to understand where violent crime hotspots were and direct officers into those areas at times they would have the "most impact".

He said officers used a "hotspot" policing app to identify where their presence was needed.

Chief Constable Jason Hogg said Slough and Milton Keynes had the highest workloads in the force for officers.

He said: "If there is a particularly high demand in Slough, we can put more officers into Slough.”

Mr Hogg said officers were more "agile" than before and could be brought into an area quickly to deal with a problem, then out again once the situation was settled.

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police told the BBC: "It remains a priority [of the force] to tackle violent and knife-enabled crime."

They said since 2022, the force had implemented Operation Deter, a zero tolerance approach to tackling knife crime.

It has seen harsher consequences brought in and a reduction in the time between offence, charge and court, they added.

Correction 13 November 2024: This article was amended after a previous version wrongly stated there had been 12 homicides between October 2023 and September 2024. There had been one, according to Thames Valley Police figures. It also incorrectly said there were 63,692 violent crimes "against the person" and 147,910 "victim-based crimes" in Slough but those were force-wide figures. The figures for Slough were 5,820 and 13,254, respectively.

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