LAUNCESTON Police Neighbourhood Beat Manager, Matt Kingdon, provided an overview of the past year's crime figures at the Launceston Town Council meeting, held on Tuesday, April 20.

It has been widely reported of late that Devon and Cornwall Constabulary has benefitted from an additional 200 officers joining across the region. Launceston Police Force is not one of those, already running at full capacity in terms of staff, both voluntary and permanent. There are ten response officers, available 24/7, two neighbourhood beat officers, three community police officers, including a new member, three station officers and two special constabulary officers.

The special constabulary officers are voluntary and each work for four hours a week. New PCSO Laura Smith has taken over from Steve Edser – who himself remains in Launceston as PCSO for migrant workers – and will patrol the Stourscombe Vale estate, along with the town centre,

From April 2009 until March 2010, 844 crimes were committed in total in the Launceston area – an increase of 13 on the previous year. Police correspondence has encouraged victims of any crimes to report them as soon as possible, thus allowing more time for investigation. In this respect, Matt said these figures suggest the police are "victims of their own success. Across the board we ask for reports to log crimes – report, report, report. Don't be alarmed by any rises."

To enforce this point, area detection figures have risen two per cent over the past 12 months. Prosecutions, both at the scene and at a later date and surrounding circumstances, e.g. location of crime, are more likely to be carried out with immediate reporting.

See this week's 'Post' for a full report.