Slight fall in County Derry crime rate over the last year

The number of crimes recorded by police in County Derry's three local government districts has shown a slight decline over the past year, according to police data.

Statistics released last week by the PSNI revealed 20,802 crimes were recorded across Derry City & Strabane, Causeway Coast and Glens and Mid Ulster over the last year.

The figure indicated a drop from 21,974 from the previous 12 months, resulting in a 5% fall in the number of crimes recorded by police from April 2020 to March 2021.

Mid Ulster experienced the largest decline over the period, with 12% fewer crimes recorded than the previous 12 months.

Causeway Coast and Glens' decline was just sharper than the county's overall trend at 6%, while in Derry and Strabane, a decline of just 2% was recorded.

The latter had the joint-lowest decline across all of Northern Ireland's council areas, with a 2% decrease also recorded in Newry, Mourne and Down.

In the period between September 2019 and August 2021, the data revealed violence without injury was by far the most common, accounting for 19% of all crimes recorded.

Criminal damage was the second most common, accounting for 18% of all crimes.

In contrast, there were no incidents of domestic or non-domestic theft recorded throughout the time period.

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