Essex Police claim to have made major inroads into violent crime in the last months of 2001, with more cases solved, and a 13 per cent drop in reported sex offences and robbery.

And they expect drug fighters to crack around 369 cases against their target of just 222.

Chief Constable David Stevens was giving a statistical analysis to the police authority general purposes committee.

He says he is hoping to solve 77 per cent of violent crime in 2002 - although based on the April to December 2001 figures they will only hit 66.5 per cent for the full year.

Mr Stevens said for the quarter from October to December 2001 there was "a downward trend in the number of reported offences against the person, including sexual offences and robbery - down some 13 per cent".

But police expect a continuing trend of about 5,600 house burglaries during 2002, with their objective a reduction to 5303. They expect vehicle crime to continue rising above 20,000 cases although they have a target of restricting them to 18,914.

Mr Stevens says there has been a "focus on preventing and reducing the incidence of criminal damage with improved partnership working showing a real impact when dealing with anti-social behaviour".

More in this week's Essex Chronicle

Published Wednesday, March 13, 2002