Carnival night contributes to rise in reported crime
Alcohol confiscated by police during Sidmouth and Seaton carnival. - Credit: Archant
Police in Sidmouth saw an increase in reported incidents during September.
Crimes logged by the neighbourhood team included two dwelling burglaries, five reports of violence with injury and two incidents of shoplifting.
But officers saw a reduction in criminal damage, drug possession, vehicle offences and assaults where the victim was not injured.
A total of 37 crimes were logged last month, compared to 33 during the same month last year.
Delivering his monthly crime report, Sergeant Andy Squires said the majority of the 12 per cent increase could be attributed to items lost by people on carnival night.
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He said things like lost mobile phones were automatically logged as thefts when they were reported, and this had skewed the figures.
The detection rate for September’s incidents was 10 per cent.
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Sgt Squires said: “We would like to try and improve on that, but there are some things that we really can’t detect.
“Things like overnight crimes, where criminal damage has occurred some six hours before it gets reported and there’s no forensics or CCTV.
“But we do our damndest, no matter what.”
