VIOLENT crime in Wiltshire has shot up dramatically according to latest crime figures but police chiefs are assuring the public the increases are down to new recording methods.

Figures released this week show the number of violent crimes in the county rose 44 per cent from 5,066 to 7,313 during April 2002 to March 2003 exactly double the national average of 22 per cent.

Overall crime in the county, labelled the second safest in the country, rose by 14 per cent from 38,883 incidents to 44,225, again double the national average.

New police methods of recording crime implemented by the Home Office have made the statistics virtually impossible to interpret with many crimes showing huge increases.

Police chiefs said the change in how they record crime is responsible for the rise and is aimed at bringing their data recording systems more in line with data from the British Crime Survey.

Wiltshire's Acting Assistant Chief Constable Andy Tatum said the figures were not reflective of the true increase in crime.

"There were no surprises for us in the figures," he said.

"We are very keen to point out the impact of the new recording measures.

"The National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) is more accurate, more consistent and it enables us to undertake better crime analysis and prevention

"Crime overall has probably only increased in real terms by four per cent."

ACC Tatum said although violent crime was up 44 per cent in real terms there was either no increase or a slight decrease.

"A lot of the violent crimes have been minor incidents of thuggery and low-level public disorders which all have to be recorded now," he said.

"What we haven't seen is any disproportionate increase of serious violence.

"The system is masking the real effect but it is making the police data or the recorded crime levels closer to the public's real experience of crime."

Burglaries were up seven times the national average to 5,835 incidents to 6,242 but police chiefs put the increase down to their concentration on Operation Litotes aimed at encouraging the reporting of distraction burglaries and bogus callers.

Similarly, drug-blitzes Operation Claire in north Wiltshire and Operation Ardent in Kennet affected the value and amount of hard drugs seized in the county.

In the violent crime category, robbery incidents in Wiltshire went up 20 per cent, sexual offences by 46 per cent and violence against the person by 46 per cent.

Another major increase was in the number of other notifiable offences including 100 extra indecent exposures and 58 more offences of possessing indecent images of children.

Operation Hussar, part of the international Operation Ore inquiry into internet paedophiles, pushed this figure up from six offences the previous year.

ACC Tatum said advances in internet policy could push the number of offences up further.

"It has the potential to increase. We have to consider very seriously how we are going to resource it."

CRIME FACT FILE

Overall Crime +14% (+7%)

Overall detection rate 28% (24%) of crimes

Violent Crime +44% (+22%)

Violence (against person) +46% (+28%)

Robbery +20% (-11%)

Sexual offences +46% (+17%)

Burglary +7% (+1%)

Theft/Handling +9% (-4%)

Fraud and forgery +16% (+5%)

Criminal Damage +10% (+4%)

Drug Offences 17% (+16%)

Notifiable Offences +55% (+11%)

Crimes Statistics 2002 - 2003: Percentage change on last year's Wiltshire figure, (followed by the national average change for England and Wales in brackets)