Crime rises in Brighton and Hove, according to new report

Recorded crime is rising in Brighton and Hove but has not yet reached pre-covid levels, according to Brighton and Hove City Council report.

A report to the council’s Equalities, Community Safety and Human Rights Committee said that there were 28,757 recorded crimes in Brighton and Hove in 2022-23.

This was more than 1,000 crimes more than the 27,531 in 2021-22 but lower than 2019-20 when 29,393 crimes were recorded.

The report breaks down recorded crime in 2022-23.

• Violence against the person 9,541 (33 per cent of the total)
• Theft (excluding vehicles) 7,016 (25 per cent)
• Public order 3,381 (12 per cent)
• Criminal damage and arson 2,621 (9 per cent)
• Vehicle offences 1,596 (6per cent)
• Sexual offences 1,261 (4 per cent)
• Burglary 1,047 (4 per cent)
• Drug offences 923 (3 per cent)
• Possession of weapons 370 (1 per cent)
• Robbery 299 (1 per cent)

Crime patterns tended to be are focused in the centre of Brighton, with summer a peak time for criminal activity.

The report said: “The retail and leisure area in the city centre is also the geographical centre for much of the city’s crime and disorder.

“Seasonal patterns often coincide with the peak visitor season when there are more people in the city to both perpetrate and be victims of crime and when people tend to spend more time outdoors.

“Certain crimes are more likely to take place at particular times of day, for example, violence occurs more frequently on Friday and Saturday nights, linking with the night-time economy.”

The link between violent crime and drinking too much is often raised by police when new businesses apply for a drinks licence in areas with a high number of existing licensed premises.

The report said: “Measures of alcohol sales and consumption are higher than England, the south east and higher than the average of our matched authorities.

“Latest estimates based on modelling from 2019-20 show that, compared with the south east and with England, the proportion of the city’s resident population using opiates or crack cocaine remains significantly higher.”

Habitual drug users are drivers of “acquisitive crimes” – and police are increasingly dealing with “cuckooing”, a term used to describe drug dealers taking over the home of a vulnerable adult.

Those susceptible include drug users, older people and those with mental health problems or learning disabilities.

Dealers are believed to have taken over 11 properties in this way in 2023-24 up to the end of December.

Children and young people and vulnerable adults are often recruited to act as drug runners from the house or flat.

Cuckooing victims and young or vulnerable drug runners are counted among the 24 cases of modern slavery recorded in 2022-23.

Over the past year, there has been an increase in groups of children and young people who have become associated with urban street gangs and engaged in serious crimes and disorder, often involving the threat or use of knives and other weapons.

A 16-year-old boy is currently awaiting sentence for a drug-related murder after he stabbed 17-year-old Mustafa Momand in Queen’s Road, Brighton, last October.

The report said that, for the first nine months of 2023-24, the number of police-recorded crimes had risen by 3.6 per cent when compared with the same period for the previous year, rising from 21,720 to 22,511.

But the number of public order offences fell by 7.3 per cent in the first nine months of this year to 2,465 from 2,659 in the first nine months of 2022-23.

The Equalities, Community Safety and Human Rights Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Monday 25 March. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.