THE top policeman in Hampshire has hit back over the crime figures reported in last week’s Gazette.

Chief Constable Alex Marshall maintains his officers are winning the fight against burglars and that the latest figures show decreases in many other types of crime.

He said: “We have shown that we are ahead of the game through our focused campaigns.”

The figures published in the annual Basingstoke and Deane Community Safety Forum Strategic Assessment report, showed that robbery had risen by more than 45 per cent, and burglary by more than 49 per cent between June 2008 and May 2009 compared with the same period in 2007 and 2008.

But Mr Marshall (right) said that the most recent figures from the last six months show that crime is declining.

He said: “We were concerned that last year burglary was going up across Hampshire. That included Basing-stoke. We launched a massive operation called Operation Nemesis and it involved officers from all over Hampshire and it was our number one priority.

“We saw a drop in burglaries. In Basingstoke there has been a drop in burglaries over the last six months. We gave lots of crime prevention advice and it is good to see that burglaries have gone down.”

Mr Marshall said a comparison from April 1 to November 1 this year with the same period in 2008 showed house burglary had fallen by 21.10 per cent.

Robberies still showed an increase of 31.82 per cent over the same period, but Mr Marshall said the number of incidents this related to was very low.

He added: “There have been 58 robberies compared with 44 in the same period last year.”

He said the most recent figures from the last six months also showed year-on-year declines in incidents of violence against a person, theft from a motor vehicle, criminal damage and arson. But robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, shop theft, fraud and forgery, and drug crimes had all increased.

Mr Marshall said more people are being caught for crimes. He added: “Those we have caught for burglary are appearing in court and will be given prison sentences.”

The police chief admitted the detection rate for robberies had fallen by 11.21 per cent in the last six months. Between April 1 and November 1 this year, the robbery detection rate was 13.79 per cent.

Mr Marshall said: “Most of the robberies are young men and young girls having valuables taken off them in the street. We are working in the schools to solve this.”

At the end of Mr Marshall’s first year as Chief Constable, crime has fallen across the whole of Hampshire by seven per cent.

The recent review by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary graded the Hampshire force as fair overall, something Mr Marshall hopes to improve.

He added: “We will continue to focus on burglary reduction and anti-social behaviour – key areas that have serious impact on our communities.” And he said the force will continue to concentrate on combating alcohol-related violence.