Crime has crashed by nine per cent across West Yorkshire, according to figures out today.

The good news compares with a national 8.8 per cent drop while other forces such as the City of London saw a rise of 6.2 per cent between 1996 and 1997.

And the two local success stories are in house burglary which fell by 18 per cent and vehicle theft which was down by 27 per cent.

But arson was up by a massive 90.8 per cent and indecent assaults against males were up by 31.8 per cent.

West Yorkshire Chief Constable Graham Moore puts the good news down to officers monitoring existing criminals.

"Crime has been steadily falling for some time and it is a trend we are working to maintain," he said. "The targeting of known criminals has been enormously successful and made West Yorkshire a safer place to be."

"House burglary is something the public always voice their concerns about, so it is particularly pleasing to see success there, with more than 7,000 crimes committed but an extra 2,000-plus detections."

He added: "We can't take all the credit. The public have played a key role in driving the criminal from their communities through things such as Neighbourhood Watch. Together we can all build on this excellent work and make West Yorkshire even safer."

Categories which saw an increase were sexual offences, which were up 3.5 per cent, fraud/forgery (up 3.4 per cent) and criminal damage (up 1.3 per cent).

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