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Tower Hamlets sees crime increase as murder, rape and gun crime rise

The latest statistics published by the Metropolitan Police show the number of offences across London have risen in the past year.

Jon Massey

By Jon Massey

Written by Pippa Allen-Kinross for The Wharf

Murder, rape, gun crime and hate crime have all risen in Tower Hamlets over the last 12 months.

According to the Metropolitan Police crime across the capital has increased and Tower Hamlets is no exception.

There were six murders in the borough in 2016/17, compared with four the previous year.

Sexual offences increased by 20% to 714 reported crimes including 268 rapes, an increase of 17% on the year before.

The figures also show gun crime increased by 16% (to 102 cases) and knife crime increased by 8% (to 611 cases).

Tower Hamlets has also seen a sharp rise in hate crime in the past year.

Islamophobic hate crime has risen 59% to 86 reported incidents, while there were 122 reported homophobic incidents, a rise of 39%.

Other racist and religious hate crimes increased by 43% to a total of 838 reported crimes.

Neighbouring boroughs also experienced an increase in crime levels.

In Newham gun crime rose by 61% to 156 cases and there were 702 reported knife crimes, an increase of 15%.

However, reported sexual offences fell by 11% to 733, with rape cases increasing by 1% to 295. The murder rate in Newham also fell by half with three recorded murders last year.

Greenwich also saw an increase in gun crime (up 55% to 87 cases) and knife crime (up 12.5% to 304 cases) although the murder rate fell by 17% with five recorded homicides.

Sexual offences rose by 6% to 565 crimes, with 182 rapes showing a decrease of 1%.

Although there was an increase in both homophobic hate crimes (up 11% to 40) and racist and religiously motivated hate crimes (up 26% to 583), reports of Islamophobic hate crimes fell by 44% to 19.

Homicide in Lewisham increased by 75% with seven recorded murders last year, and crimes of rape increased by 23% to a total of 282.

In Hackney, the murder rate fell by 25% to three recorded homicides despite an increase of 30% in gun crime (111 cases) and 11% in knife crime (562 cases).

Across London as a whole, gun crime rose by 42% and knife crime rose by 24% compared to last year, and a total of 6,409 reported rapes showed an increase of 14.5%.

The Met’s assistant commissioner Martin Hewitt said the police were working to tackle the rise in crime, including training more officers, using video cameras worn on uniforms and more crime prevention campaigns.

He said: “London is one of the safest global cities in the world.

“There are few others with such low rates of serious crime, such as murder and gun crime.

“Similar to the rest of England and Wales, crime rates in London are rising, but many of these are still at a much lower level than five years ago and are against the backdrop of significant reductions in resources.

“We are concerned about the rise of gun crime and the rise of knife crime offences committed by young people and the changing nature of the offenders.

“There are complex social reasons why more young people are carrying knives and this cannot be solved by the police alone. We must work with communities to help combat knife crime.”