As lockdown restrictions in England have started to ease in recent weeks Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, made a speech explaining that although we are one step closer towards freedom, there has also been a steady rise in crime.  

This comes after webpages, such as Crimewatch (which shares up to date information about crimes happening in the UK), have shown several videos of car thefts and home burglaries being taken place all around the country.

Pictured above: Police officers walking down a street.

During the first lockdown, the worries and fears about crime went significantly down. Meaning that many members of the public didn’t appear to report any crimes during that time, which left many feeling at ease due to reduced criminal activity in their community.

Recent data from the Office of National Statistics found the total number of crimes in England and Wales were 9% lower, which is roughly 1.4 million reported crimes less than the year before, with crimes relating to thefts being 27% lower in December 2020 compared to 2019.  

On the morning of the 17th of May during the ‘Good Morning Britain’ show, presenter Susanna Reid questioned the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan about the 60% rise of knife crime during his time as mayor. Khan’s response was, “We always try to learn from interventions which could have been made to stop particularly young people being victims of crime.”

Pictured above: Sadiq Khan recently got re-elected as the Mayor of London.

He added: “Because of our public health approach in London, both being tough on crime and the causes of death in young people, there has been progress made. . . But it’s not quite right to say there has been an increase in violent crime.” 

Metropolitan Police said they are bracing for a rise in violent and knife crime as lockdown restrictions are lifted as they fear gangs will ramp up their targeting of rivals. 

Ola Junle, the Strategy Directorate for the MOPAC, said: “Both the Mayor and Commissioner recognize that burglary has been on the rise across London. In January last year, the mayor committed £85 million of new funding to go towards tackling violent crime and burglary in the capital.”

Pictures above: Sign outside New Scotand Yard, the headquarters building of the Metropolitan Police.

And has allowed, “a major boost for Met Trace, the Met’s flagship burglary prevention programme which involves officers visiting homes to provide Londoners with crime prevention advice and delivering property-marking kits, which will significantly widen coverage and protect homes across the capital.”

Recently speaking to a student at Central Saint Martins, Thomas Spooner said, “Perhaps different crimes have risen more than others, like when going out to town you’re seeing a lot more phone thefts now because people are being more sociable and perhaps are unaware, but in terms of other crimes like internet based or fraudulent ones, they’ve peaked during I think.”  

But even now as lockdown has started to ease more in England, there is a constant worry that the possible spike in crimes could tie in with the reopening of indoor and outdoor pubs and bars, with the public now being allowed to socialize a lot more and potentially becoming a victim of or an instigator of a crime themselves. A way to prevent yourself from these crimes would be to follow the advice given by the authorities and to just be cautious in general, so that you can safely enjoy what freedom you have as restrictions continue to relax.

(Below: Interview clip provided by Emma Fullalove on her package about rise in crime on the Newsday)