RECORDED burglary figures in Merseyside are at their lowest since 1980 and are half the levels of a decade ago.

Figures published in Merseyside by the Audit Commission reveal that the risk of being a victim of burglary in Merseyside is lower, while the chance of being caught for the offence is higher.

Crackdown operations such as Bumblebee have contributed to figures which show a rise in burglary detections of 0.3 per cent to 14 per cent in 1996/7 compared with the previous year.

The number of recorded crimes per 1,000 population on Merseyside has shown a slight increase since 1993/4 although more significantly, a reduction of 10.2 per cent over 1995/6. Overall crime detections have remained the same as last year, although the detection rate for violent crime shows an increase of 4.5 per cent. The number of violent crimes per 1,000 population recorded in 1996/7 was 2.3 per cent lower than in 1995/6.

In the key public service area of call management, Merseyside Police had the toughest target time for answering 999 calls (10 seconds). However, 71 per cent of calls where answered within the target time. This represented an improvement of 24.6 per cent over 1995/6. In terms of incidents requiring an immediate response, Merseyside has again recorded an improvement on 1995/6 of 18 per cent and eight per cent compared with 1993/4.

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