Edinburgh crime news: Drug crime and housebreaking fall in the Capital while sexual offences on the rise

Police Scotland has released data showing drug crime and housebreaking is falling in the Capital, while sexual offences increase.

Police Scotland released the data for the period of 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 on Thursday, which show that drug offences fell from 2497, to 1852, when compared with the same period last year.

This includes 114 fewer drug supply crimes and 538 fewer possession offences.

The total number of housebreakings, which includes attempts, is also down again from 1693, to 1463 reports.

There has been a slight rise in the number of break-ins taking place at residential properties but they are still much lower than pre-pandemic levels.

The data also shows a rise in acquisitive crime, which includes motor vehicle crime, shoplifting and common theft.

Although the number of rapes and attempted rapes as decreased from 255 to 232, there has been an increase in sexual offences.

Incidents of possessing indecent images of children and communicating indecently have also gone down.

Edinburgh crime news: Drug crime and housebreaking fall in the Capital while sexual offences on the rise

Road casualties have also increased, with over 160 more injuries occurring.

Chief Superintendent Sean Scott, Divisional Commander for Edinburgh said: “What the Management of Information data provides us with is a snapshot of crime rates during a specific time and, as DCC Taylor has stated, they show the impact COVID has had and continues to have.

"However, it’s important to emphasise that, over the longer term 5 year average, most crime is on a downward trend.

“I am encouraged that, as we return to a sense of normality, areas that have been continually falling, such as housebreaking, have continued to reduce. However, we will not become complacent in our efforts to prevent further incidents of housebreaking occurring.

“We do continue to see a rise in fraud, but the Capital is not alone in experiencing this increase, with the country as a whole seeing a near 19% rise in crimes of this nature. This is once again evidence of the importance of Police Scotland’s cyber strategy to enhance our investigative presence in the online realm.

“However, we recognise the importance of remaining visible in our communities and continuing to tackle issues such as public space violence, sexual crime and of course, road safety. Particularly given the increased numbers of road casualties and motoring offences.”