VIOLENCE in Southampton is keeping a chief inspector ‘awake at night,’ he has conceded.

Chief Inspector Marcus Kenedy made the admission to a packed room of councillors as they met to discuss the rising crime in Southampton.

The recently published figures show that Southampton has 136 crimes per 1,000 people.

This is the highest amongst comparators and the city now accounts for 20 per cent of the Hampshire Constabulary’s recorded crime.

Southampton has had a 7.4 per cent increase in crime in 2021/2022, significantly above the national average of 5.5 per cent.

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Police say figures are going up as a result of work they are doing in partnership with Southampton City Council, raising awareness, increasing reporting and enhanced policing.

More people are now reporting crimes and more criminals are getting caught – and therefore the increasing figures might not indicate increasing crime at all.

Ch Insp Kennedy said: "The element that keeps me awake at night with regards to Southampton is violence.

"The priority in the city for a while has been to reduce violent incidents in the city.

"Also around violence against women and girls and community cohesion and engagement, that is still where our priorities lie.

"We have challenges in our city with juveniles with weapons and knife crime.

"Our intelligence picture is very strong in that area so we are focusing our resources on targeting individuals.

"We have fantastic CPI (crime prevention initiatives) in the city.

"In the last quarter Southampton had the highest rates for CPI submissions in the whole county."

Ch Insp Kenedy does accept that the force is somewhat stretched.

He said: “Southampton has 20 per cent of the crime but 20 per cent resources? The answer is no.

“(I am) aggressively lobbying to try and get it.

“(They are) recruiting very heavily in Hampshire. We want a big cut of that cake.”

Ch Insp Kennedy added: "We are never going to arrest our way out of the problem."

The following are the crime types that have increased:

  • Violent crime (24.6 per cent)
  • Domestic violent crime (23.8 per cent)
  • Stalking and harassment (75.2 per cent)
  • Sexual offences (21.3 per cent)
  • Domestic flagged crimes (23.4 per cent)
  • Drug offences (10.7 per cent)
  • Drug affected crime (34.6 per cent)
  • Hate crime (49.2 per cent)

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