Portbury Security & Crime Statistics & Predictions for 2014

Security isn’t all down to our police force. It’s down to the personal and commercial measures we take ourselves, and if we let our end slide – such as forgetting to fix that burglar alarm, failing to renew that contract with the Portbury security company our company uses – can actually have a gradual impact on the levels of crime we see.

Security in Portbury could be regarded by many as good. But if we take a look at just a few of the statistics on the police.uk crime reporting system, we can see that this year, security in Portbury appears to be following a worrying trend.

Is Crime in Portbury Getting Worse Throughout 2014?

If we look at the map for Portbury on police.uk, one thing will strike as quite blatant:

• In January 2014, a total of 7 crimes were recorded as reported
• In February 2014, a total of 11 crimes were recorded as reported
• In March 2014, a total of 13 crimes were recorded as reported

In and of itself, the numbers are far from staggering – in fact, if we compared a similar-sized location closer to Bristol centre, we’d find the number of reported crimes were far higher. But the very fact that for the first 3 months of 2014, crime in Portbury has increased consistently, is worrying.

What Types of Crime, and How to Ensure Crime Stops Rising and Portbury Security Improves for 2014

In total, the crimes reported for March 2014 were as follows:

–          Burglary and Theft: 6 out of 13 crimes

–          Anti-Social Behaviour: 3 out of 13 crimes

–          Criminal Damage, Vehicle Crime & Violent or Sexual Offences: 4 out of 13 crimes

Although as businesses looking out for security in Portbury we are not in a position to improve residential crime figures such as Burglary, we are certainly in a position to lower crime figures that occur on or around our business premises. And this is as simple as installing CCTV, hiring a security guard in Portbury, and ensuring our properties are kept watch even during closed hours.

In fact, the very presence of a security guard can completely stop anti-social behaviour in many cases, and there are plenty of stories in the news regarding security guards who have prevented the theft of a vehicle, serious damage to a property and even broken up violence.

We support our police force fully. But is there more we could be doing, as business owners, to improve the security in Portbury?

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pldms/