A zero tolerance approach to housebreaking by police has seen a 20% reduction in break-ins to homes in Angus.
Divisional Commander for Tayside Chief Superintendent Paul Anderson said he was pleased to see the number of domestic homes fall from 60 between April and December in 2015 to 48 in the same period last year.
Despite the reduction in the number of break-in to homes, there has been an overall rise in housebreaking when commercial and shed break-ins are included, from 114 in 2015 to 167 last year.
Mr Anderson said: “I think I’ve made my position on people who break into other people’s houses very clear and that is that I have no tolerance whatsoever.
“We have seen a reduction in the reporting period in the year to date of 48 offences compared to 60 at the same time last year.
“The focus of CID, investigative branch, and forensics all support a focus on keeping our community safe in their houses.
“There is a rise in overall housebreaking, which includes commercial and in particular shed breaking.
“There was a rise in shed breaking in the Kirriemuir area. That stopped suddenly. The reason it stopped was because the individuals were identified and jailed.
“However, the key message for me is that fewer houses are being broken into and I’m delighted with that.”
The latest police report for Angus showed that from April to December 2016 there were 44 serious assaults in Angus, compared to 53 the previous year.
There was a 6% decrease in petty assaults, a 13% drop in domestic abuse and a 3.5% reduction in serious violent crime.
Domestic abuse incidents were lower in the reporting period, though there is an overall upward trend in Angus over the past five years.
“The largest proportion of residential crime is made up of domestic abuse incidents,” the report stated.
“This period shows a reduction of 13.3% in the total number of domestic abuse incidents reported to police.
“This is welcome but recorded incidents of domestic abuse in Angus have more than doubled in the last five years and this could still be part of an upward trend.”
The overall number of robberies remains low with a 14.3 % increase in the detection rate. Officers in Angus continue to target individuals responsible for this type of crime.
Police also said that stop and search continues to be a useful tool in keeping communities safe, with a positive detection on more than a third of the people searched.
However, complaints of disorder have increased by 20.1% from 2,951 reports in 2015 to 3,535 in 2016.
The report added: “As with our violence picture many of these incidents occur indoors. Another contributory factor is the continued increase in juvenile and youth offenders.”
A third of crimes take place in the street, 7% in licenced premises, 49% in homes, 5% in educational establishments and 6% in other premises.
