More about this area

The force says...

Leicestershire Police covers 979 square miles with a mixture of urban and rural landscape which has seen a 9.2 percent population increase since 2001 to 1,017,697 in 2011. The population was estimated in 2017 to have increased to 1,083,226 representing a rise of 17.2% since 2001. A diverse ethnic population makes up 21.6 percent of the current population and represents an increase of 39.4 percent over the last decade. There are 130 languages and dialects spoken in the city of Leicester.

The force made estimated savings of £68.26m between 2011-12 and 2018-19. Although there has been a decrease of 560 police officers since 2010, the force is able to increase the establishment by 107 PCs to over 1,900 in 2019-20. Police staff numbers have remained relatively static.

The proportion of police officers in frontline roles has risen from 91 percent to 94.8 percent since 2010. The establishment for PCSOs is currently being reviewed in line with the new Target Operating Model.

In 2006 the police officer to citizen ratio was one police officer for 430 citizens, today there is one police officer per 601 citizens, a 40 percent increase.

In September 2017 the Campaign to End Child Poverty showed levels of child poverty in Leicester have increased to 40.6 percent; placing Leicester city authority 8th nationally in the levels of child poverty.
During the last decade to 2018-19 there has been an increase of 8.97percent in overall recorded crime.

This period included several successive years of reductions in the levels of recorded crime however, since 2014-15 there has been a 55.9 percent increase to the current 92,158 crimes recorded in the last 12 months.

There have been significant increases in areas that present a high risk of harm to the vulnerable, such as:
113.9 percent increase in rapes – 440 in 2014-15 to 941 in 2018-19.

43.1 percent increase in violence with injury offences – 4,891 in 2014-15 to 7,000 in 2018-19.

Missing person reports during 2018-19 were 5,272, an increase of 1,396 (33.6 percent)since 2016-17.

The average level of reports per month was 439 during 2018-19 equivalent to a daily average of 14 reports.

There were 803 high-risk missing person reports in 2016-17 and 1,220 in 2018-19 – an increase of 417 reports (51.9 percent).

Disclaimer: the above statement has been prepared by Leicestershire Police. The views and information in it are not necessarily those of HMICFRS.