Drop in crime rate 'encouraging'

Police have dealt with 86 reports of racism in the past year

A reduction in reported crime in Perth and Kinross over the past year is "encouraging", the council has said.

Figures show 6,890 crimes were reported to police in the past 12 months compared with 7,634 in 2006/7.

Over the same period, the number of serious and violent crimes dropped slightly from 138 to 134 and indecency offences were down from 117 to 71.

However, reports of racism increased from 79 in 2006/07 to 86 in 2007/08, the report said.

Perth and Kinross has the third highest number of migrant workers in Scotland.

The council report said the vast majority of racist crimes had been solved, and outlined the measures which have been put in place to reduce racist offending.

'Not complacent'

All such incidents reported to police are reviewed by a senior officer, a community advisory group is in the process of being set up and the Show Racism the Red Card campaign will continue to be run along with St Johnstone FC.

The report also shows that domestic abuse figures fell from 921 incidents in 2006/07 to 916 in 2007/08.

Housebreaking reduced from 173 to 156 and vandalisms were down from 2,062 incidents to 1,841.

Community Safety Convener, Councillor Willie Robertson, was pleased with the reduction in crime.

He said: "These figures are extremely encouraging and show that the work being done in conjunction with partners such as Tayside Police is having a positive effect.

"For example, the community wardens have had a huge impact on the areas they serve, and I am delighted that we are about to roll-out the service to several other areas.

"There is also no doubt that the introduction of our anti-social noise team has been a great success.

"We are not complacent. We will continue to work together with our community planning partners to make sure this positive trend continues."