ONE of Southampton’s top police officers says the force “still has work to do” in tackling crime in the city, after it was revealed that incidents rose for a fourth consecutive year.

But Superintendent Alison Heydari added she was “pleased” that targeted areas were showing signs of improvement.

In total, the city saw 31,589 crimes recorded during the year, according to the report compiled for Southampton City Council.

This worryingly included a 28.9% rise in serious knife crime, 24.7% rise in hate crime, and a 23.8% increase in rape.

Southampton District Commander Heydari confirmed sexual assaults would “continue to be a focus for us”.

She said: “It’s clear that we still have work to do in some areas, particularly drug-related harm and associated violent crime. This crime type is constantly evolving and impacts heavily on our communities. We are working with our partners locally and within national policing networks to tackle this issue, which is by no means isolated to Southampton.

“Sexual assaults will also continue to be a focus for us. This forms part of our work around domestic abuse but it’s also evident that some of these incidents link to the night-time economy and parks. Again, tackling this is very much a partnership approach and this continues.”

It was also found there had been a 14.1% decrease in burglaries – both residential and non-residential – within the city, with drug offences (8% decrease), threats to kill (5.2%), and vehicle offences (2.1%) also dropping.

It was also found that crime had fallen within seven city wards.

Bitterne recorded the biggest reduction with a 5.9% decrease in recorded crime, followed by Sholing with 5.6%, Freemantle with 3.4%, and Millbrook with 3.4%.

However, nine city wards were found to have increased, with the biggest rise in Coxford, which recorded an extra 167 crimes in 2017/18, up 16% on the previous year.

Superintendent Heydari added: “Southampton is a busy city with a diverse community, we are really pleased that the strategic assessment shows that some of the areas we have been focusing on over the past year have had positive results.

“We’ve been working really hard to equip our officers better to respond in the best possible way to domestic abuse, we’re pleased that this has led to an increase in arrests. We hope this positive action continues to give more people the confidence to come forward and report abuse in a relationship.

“Hate crime is also an area where we have been working with partners to encourage reporting, the assessment shows that the community trusts us and feels more confident to come forward and report hate crime.“As a partnership, we look forward to continuing our work to keep people who visit, work and live in Southampton safer.”