· As of April 1st 2002 the National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS) were introduced across England and Wales. These changes were made to promote greater consistency between Police Forces in the recording of crime and to take a more victim oriented approach to crime recording.
· All incidents reported to the police, whether by a victim, a witness, or a third party, are now to be registered by the police in a formal incident report.
· Any incident in which the reported circumstances amount to a crime as defined by the relevant law, and where there is no credible evidence against the report, will now be recorded as a crime. In most cases, the belief of the victim (or person acting on their behalf) that a crime has occurred will be sufficient for the incident to be recorded as a crime.
· One crime will now be recorded per victim. For example, if three people are Robbed as a group, this would previously have been recorded as one crime, as although there were three victims, it was one instance of crime. However, under the new counting rules three crimes will be recorded, one for each victim involved.
· It is estimated that the number of total recorded crime has risen by 17% in the Bradford District, as a result of these changes.
· This is due to relatively minor incidents now being recorded as a crime where they might not have been before. For example, a child forcibly taking money from another child will now be classed as a robbery.
· The changes in crime recording standards have not impacted on all crime uniformly. In the Bradford District the recording practices for Burglary Dwelling and Drugs Offences were not affected by the introduction of NCRS. However, the number of recorded crime in other offence categories has been greatly inflated due to the introduction of NCRS. It is estimated that the number of recorded Other Theft and Handling Offences has been inflated by 64%, Violent Offences (excluding robbery) by 43%, Criminal Damage by 26%, and Vehicle Crime by 17.5%.
· As police recording practices in the 3 Bradford police divisions differed prior to the introduction of NCRS, NCRS has affected recorded crime in each police division to a differing degree. For example, while the number of total crimes recorded in the Keighley Division has been inflated by 21.4%, it is estimated that total crime in Bradford South Division has been inflated by 15.5%, and in Bradford North Division by 14.2%.
· Due to the different effect NCRS has had on each of the police divisions within the District, it is not possible to estimate the impact of the changes on the number of crimes recorded within individual constituencies, wards, or neighbourhoods within Bradford District.