Crime falls but racism increases

MOST crime has fallen in north London but the number of racist offences has increased dramatically, new Met figures show.

Burglaries and robberies in Hampstead, Highgate and surrounding areas fell over the last 12 months.

In Camden, crime fell 3.6 per cent compared to a drop of 2.6 per cent across London as a whole.

In Haringey, it fell 7.2 per cent and in Barnet, 1.1 per cent.

But across the three boroughs, the number of racist crimes shot up - most notably in Barnet where there was a 33.4 per cent rise compared to the London-wide increase of 9.6 per cent.

Barnet commander Stephen Kavanagh said the jump could be controlled by police.

He said: "We are getting a good grip of the streets and when you have a grip on gun crime and youth crime then other hate crime will reduce. People are confident enough to come to us and report these hate crimes so that gives us a much better understanding."

Much of the tension in Barnet emerged during the conflict in Gaza earlier this year when several buildings were subjected to anti-semitic graffiti.

In Haringey, racist crimes shot up by 15 per cent and in Camden by 12.2 per cent.

But Haringey's commander Dave Grant was happy with the borough's overall figures.

He said: "The borough has performed well, achieving the vast majority of the targets set. This means fewer victims. We need to continue our efforts to reduce the numbers of victims, while bringing more offenders to justice."

Incidents of violence against a person rose in Camden by 3.5 per cent but Commander Dominic Clout was pleased with the overall cut in crime.

He said: "It has to be good news for us to have crime falling in the borough. But, in reality, people are not interested in 10 per cent reductions - they want to see police action on the streets around anti-social behaviour.